Trog's Tavern CLV

[Recaiden]

The feathered lady glances at the guy on his phone, then back at her drink.
He's probably busy with his device, and doesn't want to be bothered, right?
No, no, you came her to try to meet people. Normal people, doing normal things, and not people who were created by an act of god right in front of you, or people being rescued from an asteroid, or people currently involved in a fierce battle for the fate of the world. No, you're just going to meet people, at a bar, like you allegedly can just do.

She turns to the side, and then quickly turns back and takes another sip of water.

But on the next try, she manages to say,
"Uh, hi?"
"Quiet night here, huh?"

[bc56]

"Hey." The man looks the woman over for real this time. She looks uncomfortable, out of place. "It seems about normal. Maybe a little quiet." He pauses. "You don't come here much, do you? I'm Jason."

[Recaiden]

Uncomfortable and out of place is quite right. She has only a faint idea what to expect from people here. "Not really. Well, not at all, actually." She corrects herself. "I'm 'Blossom'. Pleasure to meet you." "You know this place well enough, then?"

[bc56]

"You too." Jason sighs wearily, "I come here once in a while, when I need a drink. More often recently." He sighs again. "Why do things have to be so complicated?"

[Recaiden]

Blossom puts on a smile, but it can't hide the remaining nervousness.
"I think it's just because people are complicated."

She hesitates a bit before asking,
"Why, uh, what's been happening recently?"

[bc56]

Jason shrugs. "It's my sister." He shakes his head. "I think. It's complicated." He takes a long drink. He shows Blossom a photo on his phone. It's a selfie of himself next to a beautiful woman who could easily be his twin sister, except she has red hair. "See, there she is." He takes another drink. "It's weird. I am... Was? An only child. I don't know what to do with a sister."

[Recaiden]

Blossom leans over to take a look at the picture.
"I see." Literally true, but at first she doesn't understand.
"Uh, you mean you've discovered a sister you didn't know about? The same thing happened to me, sort of."

[bc56]

"Weirder than that. She just... Sprang into existence? Or maybe I did? It's a long story. Hard to explain. Jason just looks confused. He clearly doesn't really understand what he's saying himself.

[Recaiden]

"Exactly! Two years ago, I was, well, maybe not an only child exactly, but I wasn't raised with any of the others." That's a long story on it's own.
"But then a dark god split me into two people, you know? So now I have this almost-identical twin."

[bc56]

"So something similar happened to you? It wasn't a dark god for me. She split herself, except she was me, but I existed before her, but she remembers everything I did up to the split, but I don't remember what she did, but she's a fox and I'm still a human, and..." Jason trails off. "As I said, it's complicated."

[Recaiden]

"Uhm, are you saying that you could have as easily been here, and then things would have been completely different?" Blossom suggests. "It does sound complicated, but, probably most of the complexity is on her?"

[bc56]

Jason isn't sure how to parse that first sentence. "I don't understand what you're saying." To the second one, however, he replies, "She's the complicated one, yeah. I know my parents only had a son."

[Recaiden]

"Oh, I'm sorry. But it wasn't really important." Blossom shakes her head as if to clear away the confusing words.

"Are you and your sister still mostly alike, or have your lives gone down different routes now?"

[bc56]

"Well, she's gotten into some magic stuff, and she's had time to work on some extra projects, and she has a sort-of boyfriend, and she's a fox, but I think we're mostly similar." Jason answers.

[Recaiden]

"You're not jealous of her?" Blossom muses. That would be a terrible thing to come between you and your magic twin sister.

[bc56]

"Jealous? Yeah, kinda. She got to start and finish some really neat projects I wish I'd thought of. She's really smart and all." So's Jason, but like most people he doesn't think as highly of his own achievements. He wonders, a little, if his sister might be smarter than him.

[Recaiden]

From the outside, though, that's very suspicious.
"And you haven't been working on any projects? I mean, aren't you just complimenting yourself there?" Blossom observes.
She's not quite as nervous, as Jason has ended up weirdly relatable.

[bc56]

"No. It's like there's a six month hole in my life. Some side effect of the process that created her, as I understand it. We're twins, but she's somehow six months older than me." Jason doesn't really understand it.

[Recaiden]

"So you don't just have a new sibling, now you're the younger brother? That really is a shock!" Blossom interprets. In fact, it's sounding to her like perhaps Jade was the original all along. But she doesn't suggest that to him.
"But six months from now you'll be just as good."

[bc56]

"And six months from now, she'll be six months better too." Isn't sibling rivalry great? Jason sighs. "I guess I should just be happy for her. She's got most everything she wants." And she did it all in the time Jason doesn't remember. Or maybe didn't exist.

[Recaiden]

"Well, being jealous isn't going to help, right? You should ask her to help you with some projects instead." Blossom advises. "Or are you two the competitive sorts?"

[bc56]

"I'm used to working alone. And so's she, I think." Jason rests his head in his hands. "It's weird. I barely know her, but I know her super well because she's like a copy of me. A lady copy of me, but still."

[Holy-hunter]

From the ceiling above a large dark huntsman spider slowly descends on its web, it’s decent destined to land in Raeh’s out-stretched open hand. She gives the creature a welcoming coy grin as it scurries up her arm and seemingly perches on her shoulder.

“Its always handy to have a couple of extra eyes on things.” her head turns back as she winks at the old drow.
“Alright!” she says with some moderate enthusiasm and volume. Now standing up on the table and drawing all eyes to her. ”Alright, well you ain’t the prettiest lot I’ve worked with but you’ll do.” a flirtatious grin suddenly appeared across her face, vanishing just as fast, happening so quick it was impossible to tell where it was aimed. ”You do look like you will make for some interesting deaths though...” her mind drifted elsewhere as her sweeping gaze paused on Jack.
”But the only thing your gonna die from at this rate is either old age or the terrible acid that passes as ale around here. So let’s get going!”

With that she draws a small glowing crystal from her pouch and casually tosses it in the air. With a loud ‘crack’ the air is suddenly distorted as the crystal explodes, tearing a hole in reality as the space that once existed there gave way to a wide hollow darkness, traced by arcing bolts of orange and blue electricity that dance around it’s edges. It was easily large enough for any to step through although its inky black surface gave no inclination to where it might lead, if anywhere.

Raeh remains on the table watching with an excited interest. Curious to see if anyone would rather walk then trust her.

Spoiler: If you step into the portal

Show

You Literally just appear 100ft away out the front of Trogs

.

[bc56]

Selekhael looks between Raeh and the others. "No. I don't know who you think you are, but I'm not going to work with someone who keeps talking about wanting me to have an interesting death." She looks for confirmation from each of them in turn. "We should leave her here. There's no reason to bring her with us. We can't trust someone who won't even tell us her name and who so casually admits to wanting to see us die." She intentionally talks about Raeh as if she's not in the room. If the obvious traitor feels insulted enough to overplay her hand, that's just a bonus.

[Recaiden]

"It's not the same working with someone who's just like you as working with a stranger, is it? Although my sister and I do usually split up the jobs."
Blossom frowns just slightly.
"Is it so different working with a lady?" She had been so nervous about herself in general that she'd forgotten how people do worry about that here, and in a different way than back in the temple.

[Earl of Purple]

"Oh, relax. She's not going to work with the rest of us, so if any of us will it'll probably be her. You want to know her name? Call her Slobberchops or something, she'll tell you eventually." Jack stretches one of her wings out, staring at the portal and its destination outside. "That looks safe to me. Doesn't go far, though." Jack grins, and will step through unless stopped or somebody adds something.

[bc56]

Jason shrugs. "No, I mean yes. I don't know. I don't know what to think of her." He seems tired. "How about you tell me about your sister?" Maybe hearing how someone else has dealt with sudden-onset siblings will help.

[Recaiden]

Ah, it seems that wasn't the best thing to say. "Oh, my sister is great."

"Not to be conceited or anything." Even though she notes out Jason doing the same thing.

"But she's diligent and brave and c-"
"Well, we sort of split up our responsibilities from before we were both around. I think one of us was supposed to take the place of the other, but then I'd just have all her problems, don't you know?"

[bc56]

"That sounds good. So you don't work together, do you live together? Do you get along well? How'd she come about?" Jason seems pretty curious, and he would rather not talk about his own issues right now anymore.

[Recaiden]

Blossom shakes her head.
"No, she stays at the temple here in Inside most days, and I'm usually at the tower back home."
"But we talk all the time, right?" She starts to pour herself another glass of water.
"Umm, I think I said it was when this strange god came to visit the temple."