Character Cantina II

Grinning widely, Wesley said, "Well, that's just another thing we have in common I guess. The universe has a habit of screwing with me. It has to be something, I figure. Call it fate or whatever, she's a bitch."

He took a draught from his own tankard. He burped quietly. "Can't say I've ever met werewolf myself- don't much care to either, from how you describe them. But you didn't need to use stakes or silver bullets or anything like that to kill them off?"

—————

Meanwhile, in a far corner of the room lurked the scaly figure from before. It had been keeping careful watch over the soldier, Wesley, and the lizard-person he was talking to. Grey lids slid across its eyes once more, keeping them moist. Those eyes were sharp; a hunter’s eyes. They could pick out and track prey at range and with great resolution. Right now those eyes were roaming over Wesley's grey friend, Xavier. It was fascinated.

There still retained an edge of fear but most of it was gone, replaced by an active inquisitiveness. Since arriving here, nothing had bothered it. It seemed that this place was safe- its head dipped visibly as it admonished itself internally. It had realized that it was just this personal quality that had gotten it into trouble in the first place. Still, it couldn’t help but look on, and it wasn’t obvious how this might hurt.

And now for something completely different!

As it was, the man draped over the counter with his face in a puddle of spilt beer had officially been free for 3 hours. And so far, he was hating every bloody second of it. Soaked in alcohol and memories, he recalled the sleepless nights and bloody days of the months past. Perhaps, he thought, it would've been better for him to stay, like she had. Fighting to survive had simplified things dramatically, given him purpose and direction. It had given him a goal. Having now achieved it, what was left for him? His old life of cheap liquor and barely legal underground fight clubs? Fuck that.

Perhaps going back wouldn't have been such a bad idea. He could have purpose. He could have liberation. He could have her. Perhaps...

He closed his eyes, humming the faint electronic beeping, and began to dream of the cities of the future, and the songs of old. I'm going home, back to the place where I belong... And where your love has always been enough for me... I'm coming home

There on the soft earth she slept, her ringed eyes closed to the world. Arms laid atop one another and legs tucked to her stomach, as if she were a child reaching for the horizon, her sleep was primal, deep. But from the looks of things, it was by no means peaceful. She tossed and she turned, her face slick with earth and sweat, and in the midst of her dreams, she grimaced.

Her eyes snapped open. She gasped for breath, hand pressed to her heart as if to slow its beat. Dull eyes twitched to and fro, their faded hazel finding nothing familiar in this place. In a panic, she shut them, still breathing in greedily, trying to hold still her beating heart.

She takes in one final gulp of air, and tries opening her eyes again. Still, she saw nothing helpful, not even a landmark to guide her home. And then her wandering eyes stop, and focus. In the distance there lies a warm light. A cantina, by the looks of it. It would have food, water, and perhaps a place to rest while she found her bearings. Rising to her feet, she begins her trek towards the small glow on the horizon.

edited 13th Sep '11 11:02:30 PM by KSPAM

Hmm, a bit late, but I'm going to give it a try

"Uhm...Mr Devon?" Hyun Soo asked, noticing that his mentor has frozen while waving his hands.

"Quick! Hyun Soo, did I forget my med?"

"I wouldn't know, sir."

"I think I did. This pony just spoke, and turned into a human, and is now playing a guitar."

"You are a half millenia year old alchemist who traveled between dimensions once every few decades and you haven't seen anything like that? Also, she's apparently originally a human."

"Hey, it's a pony man. That girl just turned her into a pony you know exactly how much calibre you would have to pull something like that."

"Are you implying..."

"Yeah, she might as well be. I'm going to see if that thing is with any company...wait a minute, where the hell did that stage come from?"

"You are quite far from being jaded, Mr. Devon, aren't you?"

"I don't know about that, but we have some big deal here. Let's go and see what that...ponygirl or whatever has to show us."

Marcus and Hyun Soo moved toward the presumably summoned stage and took a front seat. However, their focus was on the girl who apparently was the one who's capable of such high capacity Augmentation, or whatever is equivalent of that where she came from.

Heh, Kiora thought. Admire my wings, now admire my real talent.

Staying in key, she cranked the gain up on the amp and flipped the pickup switch on the guitar. Don't lose the beat, piano man, she thought with a grin. A quick ascending lick brought her into a two-handed tapping melody, which flowed into a very fast chromatic lick to land on the root of the next chord.

Some speed-picking runs transitioned into a series of fast arpeggios, and with a final dive of the whammy bar, a squealing harmonic rang our from the amp.

"Yeah, I'm awesome," she said, returning to the more normal jazzy licks she had been playing.

"Oh. Oh wow."

Marcus breathed in awe. The girl's performance impressed Hyun Soo as well, but he did not change his frozen expression. He remembered the four member light rock club from his school, and wondered if what would they see if they see the performance. They would try to recruit her, he thought.

He then, ignoring his easily awed mentor, took a look at the girl who's the guitar playing girl's master or at least companion. She didn't seem to be too occupied with her companion playing so he figured that he might as well try to ask her about what she really is. The idea then reminded him; him and his mentor still had no idea what the place is supposed to be. Figuring that his mentor would be fine on his onw, he walked to the barstand again and after coughing and trying to make his voice as masculine as possible, he asked the barkeep in English, hoping that the girl wasn't the only one who speaks English.

"Excuse me, may I have, uhm...a glass of mead?"

He then mentally chastised himself; such a rude way to address someone! What if she didn't like that title? Then he remembered, he was never good in speaking to others. Maybe he should bring his mentor along...hold on a sec, why did he order a mead?

edited 14th Sep '11 12:25:24 AM by dRoy

Kohana rolled her eyes as Kiora showed off. Even if it clashed horribly with the style of music being played, there was no denying her technical ability.

She was half tempted to turn her back into an anthropomorphic equine, when a faux-masculine voice caught her attention.

She raised an eyebrow in the boy's direction and spoke up. "You sure you can handle mead?" she asked. She put her empty wine bottle on the counter and several heavy coins. "Another bottle, please," she said to the bartender.

Hearing a voice, Hyun Soo internally flinched, barely stopping himself from saying "No, maam." After a moment, though, he looked for the origin of the voice, only to find him staring at a girl looking no older than ten, ordering another bottle of presumably an alcoholic beverage. The effeminate boy blinked a little, his face still frozen. Did she recognize that I'm underage? She's not the one to talk if that's the case, though, he wondered.

"How would you know?" Hyun Soo replied, trying to suppress his eyebrow raising.

edited 14th Sep '11 2:14:43 AM by dRoy

At the entrance of the cantina, there was a flash of faint blue light. When it faded, there stood a young woman who could be best described as a grey-scaled, wingless humanoid dragon wearing an equally grey pinstripe suit. Her arms splayed fowards as she announced:

"At last, Lei, here we are! Th' Malone Car-"

As her violet eyes opened wide, her arms dropped to her sides in dismay.

"Ah fuck."

The girl looked to her side. "And yer not even here, either. This is probably alla yer fault, too."

Her shoulders slumped, she walked over to the bar and took a seat. Maybe what they said was right, that if she wasn't there before then she never could be. Ah well, nothing for it but to take a drink...

"This is some kinda speakeasy, right? Ya ain't got quite nearly enough distinguished folk here to possibly be too succsessful."

"Stakes are for vampires," said Xavier, "and silver bullets are, historically speaking, a recent addition; they're first mentioned only eighty years ago. Most of the older stories have no mention that they can only be hurt by silver. And a good thing, too, because these guys had human-level intelligence, at least."

He glanced over at the green reptilian looking quietly at him. It seemed somewhere between apprehension and curiosity. "Hey," said Xavier. "I don't bite. Come on." He beckoned it over.

"Flashy," Lafayette repeated. So, he had something in him too, something he would be able to feel, but Samuel had locked it up. So, Samuel probably wasn't one of these ghosts that humans had talked so much about, because of the invisibility, because he wasn't invisible all the time. Lafayette ran his hand further down Samuel's forearm. There was so much that he just couldn't see.

"Your coat is a cage, then," said Lafayette. He had been in a cage once, that made him blind, so that must have been like what the 'coat' was. "I'm sorry."

Wesley’s eyes followed Xavier’s over to the corner of the room where a figure he had yet to notice had been sitting. It was Saurian-looking and wore a dirtied brown leather outfit with a hood that it had pulled up to try and conceal its face. His eyebrow cranked up like a drawbridge. “Okaaay-?”

—————

The creature noticed that the chimera was looking at it and, after a few moments of shocked indecision, drew back and tried to make itself look inconspicuous. It made a noise that sounded like a mix between a sigh of frustration and a whimper of embarrassment. Resignedly, it chose to give Xavier its full attention, dropping the pretense of secrecy but keeping the hood and not getting up. It then looked pointedly at Wesley, as if it was trying to tell Xavier something.

edited 14th Sep '11 7:17:18 AM by Gault

"That thing sounds... terrible," William says flatly, and goes back to the first song he had played, Violet's waltz-thingy. Bianca tried making a dance to match, but it hasn't worked out too well yet. Cyrus hums along quietly enough so that William can't hear, since it always bothers him when people do that.

Xavier glanced from the lizard to Wesley. "I think it's scared of you," he said. "Or something. I can't really tell, I'm not good with body language outside of humans and chimeras."

He turned to the lizard. "Look. No one's going to hurt you. Violence isn't allowed in here. What's the matter? What's your name? Can you even understand me?" He tried to look as nonthreatening as possible.

Silver bells chimed and the oak doors slowly swung inwards. The brightest black sky offered up the cantina's newest visitor, as she fell from the blackness onto the scuffed wood floor. She was quite a sight, an unusual one to be sure. Dressed in fatigues, her shirt black as night and her hair blacker, she lay there on the floor, her breath shallow and ragged. Her eyes twitched and flickered, running rapidly around in their sockets. The only part of her with any energy to spare.

Her shallow breathing slowed to a crawl, and she felt for the second time that night the slow embrace of dreamless sleep. And yet somehow, her eyes kept moving, swirling, dancing. The eyes never stopped, even as her breath ceased. Constantly swiveling, turning, running, watching. Finally, her eyelids shut tight, squeezed against one another, closing the blinds on the windows to her soul. But the eyes, those frantic, beastly eyes, still kept running.

Let's see where we can go with this.

Kokabiel considered Ian's story. "Hmm... fascinating." But not the sort of story he'd come to hear. Still, best to pry a bit deeper. "And what became of this chairman? More importantly, why did you do his bidding? And, what, pray tell, is your definition of 'crime'?" The last one was a very important distinction.

(Table 8)

Ian fidgeted as Pandora's tail flickered against his leg. "Well, The Chairman ended up getting thrown into a vat of bio-medical waste, tragic, but the bastard deserved everything he got. In terms of why we did his bidding, it was primarily because of the amount of money, he 'supposedly' promised, but after a while, we finally got smart and offed him," Ian smiled grimly as he talked, "In terms of our definition of crime, we go after big crime syndicates, often in the most absurd and violent way possible," Ian laughed as he breathed out, "Petty crimes aren't our business, violence and insanity is our specialty, so going after one person is boring and a tiny bit over the top to unless a violent barrage of bullets on one guy who took an old women's purse."

Wesley sat on his chair, tapping his chin, stumped. “Not sure why. I’m not wearing a Union uniform anymore. But it seems to want to talk to you.” He turned to Xavier. “So, what are you going to do?”

The scaly creatures’ eyes widened, then settled back again in realization. It gave Xavier a look of longing and said nothing, seeming to carefully ignore Wesley. Puzzling. For a moment it seemed to dip its head in a pensive gesture, before looking back up, straight at Xavier, and nodding.

"Hmph?" Kokabiel turned his attention to the girl who had entered and appeared to be having some sort of seizure. He said, "give me a moment," then left the table to kneel beside her, considering what he could do. He had utterly no knowledge of healing or medicine — these were not things he taught. So he said, loudly but very calmly, "is there anybody with some sort of medical knowledge? I see no reason to let this girl die on us."

"Try to communicate, somehow," said Xavier. "I don't know how, though."

He stood up and imitated its gesture. "I don't know if you understand me," he said, "but I'll talk anyway." He bared his claws and teeth, snarling, before putting his hand behind his back, closing his mouth, and shaking his head. "I don't want to hurt you." He motioned for it to come closer. "Come over here. Do you have a name? I'm Xavier."

Does it see something in me? It looks... respectful, somehow. Or like it knows me from somewhere. But I've never seen anything like it. And its gestures are so humanlike.

Cathy burst from the side room to attend to the most recent visitor. "Give her some space!" She cleared the surrounding area around her and lay her to one side. She then waved her hand over her, using her magic to ease her. It seemed like she was suffering from a lack of energy.

She conjured up a floating stretcher below her and lifted her up. "I'm going to bring her upstairs. Brent, prepare some water for her."

edited 14th Sep '11 2:07:03 PM by chihuahua0

"Bah, bloody terrible service. Ain't no wonder nobody with any money's comin' in here."

Somewhere behind her, there was a thud. She sighed, and turned around. A girl'd collapsed on the floor of the cantina, and already some buffoon who likely didn't know nothin' about nothin' had already rushed to her aid. The young woman stood up and walked over to the girl, and kneeled next to her. She traced her index finger along the girl's neck, looking for a pulse.

"Assumin' she ain't already dead, which, seein' as she's breathin' isn't likely, she's probably just exhausted. I ain't an expert, but some good food an' drink and a mite 'a rest oughta get her back on her feet."

oh no ninjas

edited 14th Sep '11 2:10:07 PM by Lasty

The creature paused in confusion, before nodding again. It shot another glance at Wesley. Then it slowly stood up, its tail coiled around an ankle, and made its way over to Xavier. It pulled a chair from an adjacent table and sat next to Xavier, opposite to Wesley, its face down-turned. It said nothing.

Wesley watched it with a mixture of concern and suspicion. This was a strange way to act.

edited 14th Sep '11 2:29:00 PM by Gault

Xavier blinked. He shot a brief look at Wesley before turning back to the lizard.

"Uh, look," said Xavier, "I don't really know what's up with you. I'm sorry if I sound insulting, but you're not exactly responding to what I'm saying in a way I can understand. Are you scared of me? Do y- Wait, wait, let's solve this another way. Even if you know what I'm saying, you might not be able to speak. So..." He looked it in the eye as much as he could. "Do you understand me? Just nod if you can, you don't need to say anything."

After listening intently, the dull green lizard-person seated next to Xavier looked taken aback, and began shaking its head vigorously before Xavier had finished speaking. It then hastily switched to furious nodding when he asked it if it could understand him. It then stared guiltily at the floor, looking bewildered.

Wesley caught Xavier’s look and shrugged as if to say, ‘I’ve no idea.’

It lifted it's angular head to steal a look at Wesley, turning away again when he noticed and tried to get a good look at it's face in return. Wesley huffed in irritation, but stayed quiet.

edited 14th Sep '11 2:46:34 PM by Gault

my time is short, I'm playing Devil May Cry 4

Ian watched the elderly gentlemen looked for assitance for the girl until the Catina's manager popped a stretcher out of thin air, "''Interesting,"" was all that Ian could think. He turned back to Pandora who's tail still flickered against Ian's leg.

"Ya know, this place isn't so bad, I mean besides, some of the weird things, but it's fine, and would you please stop that." Ian pointed at Pandora's tail as she smiled and retracted the tail.