Character Mansion

[Smoking Room]

Aseyu shook her head and thought for a moment. Then she paused. "Two stupid questions," she said. "One, how would Xavier react if he thought you'd actually taken me up on my offers? Two, how long can you keep an absurd lie going?"

She smiled as she took another taffy, fairly confident Mai could put the pieces together.

[Library]

"Well," Samira explained, "being taught is considered a right where I come from. Everybody gets to learn, at least for twelve or so years... but there's only so many teachers. So, aside from those rich or fortunate enough to get personal tutors, we have to teach in classrooms. And as for half the charges..." she laughed mirthlessly. "That's a bit pessimistic, but I certainly felt that way a few days." Then, seeing Anne's thoughtful expression, she asked, "something on your mind you'd care to share?"

Interesting, Samira thought. She came from wealth. I have a bad feeling about how her relations with her family are, though...

Agustin poured a cup for himself, taking a sip and regarding Xavier with a sly expression. "Speaking about yourself, I take it? If it's not presumptuous of me to say- it looks as if you bear your fair share of battle scars as well. If not for your manner I'd have thought you were also a soldier." He set his cup down on the table gently, taking care not to rattle the saucer. "And as for the tea, it's an old favorite of mine. I always buy Imperial. Supports the war effort, though I suppose I do enough of that already." He gave a light chuckle. "Honestly, the name's a bit of a misnomer. It more properly describes our enemies."

Anita gave an uneasy glance at the woman with the bob haircut as she strode past. It reminded her of some of the girls at school who always acted like they owned the place. They could be very annoying when they wanted to be. She hoped this new person wasn't like that.

She turned to Yuki and the spider thing. What was its name again? Oracle?

"Um, do you know where we are, exactly?" She gave a timid smile.

[Entry Hall -> Parlor]

A lot of people were gathering now, and Andrew and Gabrielle were starting to drift away from Jon, which was fine with him. Time to mingle.

At a whim, he decided to enter the right door closest to the entrance.

Jonathan took a breath at the lavishly, yet tastefully decorated room. A warm, flickering light came from the fireplace, but the trophies of strange heads unnerved him a bit.

Looking in wonder at the beauty of the room—luxury he never truly had the pleasure being in before, he almost forgot about the people already in the room, in deep discussion. One of them looked like a soldier, an occupation Jonathan could identiy, the other was...was...was that a dragon?

[Entry Hall]

Vivi turned around and shook her head. "No idea. I don't know from nothing about how I got here. However, I wouldn't be so shocked, although that's from my experience."

She pointed at the spider. "It'll be my day if that is the strangest thing I see around there." With that, she walked out of sight to find some more extravagant room to sit down in and take a ciggy...or some hooch, if it was indeed a joint.

Today, Vivi was in a law-breaking mood.

Good night. I'll get her with a larger group later.

edited 27th Jan '13 8:19:38 PM by chihuahua0

[Smoking room]

"I once kept an absurd lie going for so long," said Mai, smirking a little, "several human civilizations rose and fell in the meantime. In China, my kind was once worshipped. I was a goddess." She was practically glowing with self-importance as she spoke. "Oh, sure, belief in that sort of thing grew less and less over time," she continued, waving a hand, "but I was still afforded a great deal of respect."

Mai stopped smiling and started scowling. "Then that asshole Mao Zedong annihilated all that," she hissed, "along with a good portion of his people. Moron."

She sighed and pulled herself back to the subject. "Anyway, I don't th-" The pieces clicked and Mai looked Aseyu right in the eye. "He'd never fall for it," she said flatly. "He knows me too well. We've known each other for almost fifty years. You think you don't get to really know someone in that time?"

[Parlor]

"Gee, how'd you guess?" said Xavier in a voice tinged slightly with sarcasm. He snorted. "Yeah, I'm supposed to be a teacher, and yet I keep getting thrown into situations way over my head." He frowned. "Well, I suppose that's exaggerating a bit, but it feels that way. One of those situations is, more or less, how I lost my eye." It twinged a bit with phantom pain and he rubbed it. "Kinda wish I knew some soldiers," he continued, "so they could tell me how they deal with it. Know well," he added, "since this is a rather... personal matter."

He picked up his teacup again and took a sip. It had only cooled off a little, but enough for him to drink more of it. It was a rich flavor, but not one he'd pick on his own. Maybe I'm not a tea person. "So if the name 'Imperial' more accurately describes your enemies," he asked, "why keep it? Is it a leftover from... something or other?"

Xavier glanced at the man who had walked in, wearing a trenchcoat and leg braces, and gave him a nod. "Hey. I'm Xavier Sunyo."

edited 21st Mar '13 7:51:13 PM by TeraChimera

Library

"Oh. Um..." Anne shook her head. "I know this kinda clashes with what you were just saying, but...I kinda missed most of what you and Markus were just talking about. I'm sorry; I just tend to zone out when people get into discussions like that." At that, she lifted her hands up and started fidgeting again.

She decided to steer the subject back towards Samira's world. "Has this mass education system of yours turned out well? For the state of the world, I mean?"

Agustin inclined his head towards the newcomer in way of greeting, raising his cup to his lips. After swallowing, he said, "I suspect the company retains it because it has become an established brand by now. Don't really know why they chose it in the first place- probably to project some grand, majestic image." He shook his head, a pensive expression befalling his features. "I actually think it was something of a mistake on their part, considering the recent experiences people have had with Empires. Had- and continue to have, I might add."

He put the teacup down, on the table this time, and lace his white dress-gloved hands together. "Any political entity that seeks to expand it's dominion over others and subjugate them to itself is an empire, no matter what their pretensions. Regardless of the ideology they profess to cleave to, if they advance it by means of conquest they are, first and foremost, before anything else, imperialists. And that alone qualifies them for opposition."

[Outside => Balcony => South Guest Room => Parlor]

Friedrich crouches on the ground, aiming his crossbow at the roof of the back of the mansion. Though the bear pelt cloak he'd taken from the man he'd disposed of this morning had kept him warm despite being too small for his broad shoulders, he was cold and really needed somewhere to rest for a while. He pulls the trigger and fires the grapple. It lands, firmly gripping the gutter on the side of the roof. He puts the crossbow behind his back, attaching it to his leather vest, and pulls on the rope hanging from the roof. Satisfied with how solid it feels he begins his ascent, muscular bare arm over arm. He tries to push with his legs and feet, but the tight cloth pants and leather boots he's wearing both prove difficult to grip with. After minutes of climbing he emerges panting on the roof.

He rubs his pointed ears and brushes some gunk out of his extremely short black hair before proceeding to the task at hand, pulling up the grapple. Once done he sits motionless for a few seconds muttering before teleporting a couple feet downwards, falling on the balcony with a loud thunk. He looks forward and stares mortified, a practical gala is below him in a huge hall. He dashes to the left through a doorway, and turns right immediately, hoping to find some way out of the place. He turns right at the wall finding himself in a bedroom. He breathes hard, putting his hands on his knees. He mutters to himself again, hopefully he can make it to the ground floor before going outside. His outline fades before transporting himself falling to the floor below with a thud, stretched out like a cat. He looks around before noticing Agustin's rapier and paling.

"I was just. Heading out." Friedrich's voice is surprisingly deep. He straightens up begins shuffling around the outer edge of the wall towards the door that leads to the hall. "I'll just... uh find somewhere else. Or something."

edited 27th Jan '13 8:46:55 PM by Aqueos

[Outside->Entry Hall]

Up to the Mansion walked an tall, old, fat man. His name was Franklin Higgins. You could say he had a piggish look about him. That's because he was a pig. Looked sort of like Porky if he had let himself go.

He was dressed in a green pirate outfit and had a grey beard. A bit of a modern pirate you would say. He was a bit of a loon, having found the mansion while looking for swamp monsters.

Frank walked through the door and into the entry hall. "Hello, anyone in here?" he asked.

[Smoking Room]

Aseyu studied Mai thoughtfully. "Dangerous game," she said. "Once a civilization's committed it's first few deicides," she smirked, "they tend to develop a taste. Our latest would-be god has stuck around well past his due date, though. I suppose you managed to avoid the wrath of anyone important? Kept generally decent relations with your worshippers?" She tapped her chin. "Have the humans of your world figured out antimagic yet, anyways?"

[Library]

Samira considered the question, then laughed. "Well," she said, "the children being educated rarely appreciate it at the time, to be honest. But only because they're not really aware of the alternatives — apprenticeship at best, child labor at worst. But..." her face turned serious, "I'd say it's one of the greatest achievements in history." She bit her lip, and after a moment, added, "don't worry, I'll spare you another ramble. You've already suffered one from me, and that's quite enough."

edited 27th Jan '13 9:08:04 PM by KillerClowns

[Parlor]

Xavier flinched when the... elf? He had pointed ears — when the elf fell down through the ceiling. But, apparently, he was just passing through. Right. That wasn't very likely, but Xavier didn't want to press the issue. "All right, then," he said vaguely, waving a hand towards the door. "Nice meeting you, be seeing, bye, so long, and thanks for all the fish."

He turned back to Agustin. "Empires do tend to be on the aggressive side, don't they? I wonder why. It always seems like you could get a lot more territory by doing things peacefully, since people won't be afraid of you." He flared his wings. "But I'm not fit for leadership, so I wouldn't know about that."

Xavier thought for a moment about his own history with wars and frowned. "You know, why don't people try to put more resources into assassins instead of entire armies, and try to go for the leader directly? Cut off the head of the snake and all that."

[Smoking room]

Mai laughed. "Good relations? You kidding me? I didn't need to do anything to keep that. 'Course, they weren't worshiping me, specifically, just Oriental chimeras, but same thing. We didn't even need to do much to get it started — a few tricks here and there and everyone was tripping over themselves to pay tribute to us. Kind of accidental, really." She grinned. "Not that I mind."

Mai was about to ask how Aseyu knew about chimeric magic, but then recalled she knew Xavier. That would explain a lot. "Humans haven't figured out antimagic yet, though. Don't think they ever will, but then they don't need to; they just buy it off of us." She began listing some of the sources off. "Grenades — kinda like flashbangs, except with magic instead of sight and hearing... bullets that take away magic if they don't kill you... various field generators for that sort of thing... And that's not counting passive stuff, like locks that can't be picked with magic."

[Parlor]

Friedrich stops and walks towards the table. "Assasins?" He laughs. "Look guy, we're good at dispatching the occasional prince or two but we're no good at infiltrating some huge military fortress." He puts his right hand on the table, "And of course if we get caught and they find out who we're from you're in big political trouble." He pulls the cloak off and starts folding it over his left arm. "And don't even get me started on how much trouble you're going to get into if you think you've found a trustworthy assassin. We'll backstab anyone if we get to stay around..."

He sighs, "Of course here I am killing minor drug lords. For other drug lords. How noble. Like it makes any difference for anyone. Gotta eat I guess." He fiddles around with his belt, attempting to better conceal the multitude of weapons he's carrying. "It's Friedrich by the way."

Anita watched as the strange woman walk off. She shot Yuki and Oracle a somewhat bemused glance.

Getting the faintest hint of an idea, she kneeled down in front of Oracle.

"Um, excuse me but… Would you happen to know where we are?" She gave another timid smile, although she wasn't sure why. Being a spider, it probably wouldn't appreciate it.

Just then, a portly old man with a gray beard and a snout like nose walked in, greeting everyone.

Anita flashed him that timid but polite smile of hers, but stayed kneeled in front of the large spider.

[Entry Hall]

"Hey, everybody." Franklin said as he looked around the room, somehow unfazed by the giant spider."This seems like a nice place, anyone know who the owner is?"

Anita shook her head. Did anybody know what was going on?

"I'm actually trying to find out where we are." She pointed to the spider. "Um, are you lost too?"

Something seemed to be off about the old man's appearance. Why was his skin so pink? He seemed friendly enough.

Actually, everyone seemed friendly enough, except for that girl with the big purse. That still didn't change the fact that Anita had no idea where she wad or what was going on, but it did help calm her a little.

[Parlor]

Jonathan Feller smiled politely, "Jonathan Feller. May I have a seat? My legs unfortunately aren't as they used to be."

But before he got an answer, an...elf? crashed into the room. He gave Jonathan quite the jump scare, and before he could get his wits together, he had a fireball in his right hand, ready to launch it. Then, realizing that the elf was A. Not human, and B. Not Stellark, he awkwardly put out the flame, rubbing his hand against his side and doing a polite cough.

"Sorry," he mumbled towards his shoes.

[Entry Hall]

More humanoids entered the hall. Oracle decided to just stand still, observe and do more ^{measurements.} 

Gravity: 9.8 m/s²
Ionizing Radiation: <0.9 mSv/a
Magnetic Intensity: 65 muT

Atmosphere:
Pressure: 1001.0 hPa
N2: 78%
O: 20.95%
CO2: 396 ppm
CO: 1 ppm
Nitrogen compounds: Trace
Hydrocarbons: Trace
NH3: Trace
Ar: 0.9%
other: n/a
Temperature: [[Green:295 K]]
Humidity(H 2 O Rel): 40%
Wind speed(min/current/max): 0/0/0.3 m/s
wind Direction: 10°

Visual:
Horizon: False
Sky: False Stars Alt/Az: False
Planet: True (C = n/a)
Possible Threats: Humanoids [unknown#]
Possible Recources:
Other: 6 doors, Stairs to second floor, Balcony

It was warm and quite dry inside, this was clearly a heated house. The airpressure was slightly lower inside than outside and there was a draft when the door opened. There might be a fireplace burning somewhere.

The humanoids talked to each other. Wait? One of them had kneeled down and asked something. It, no she had asked for location, she had asked more then once.

"Atmosphere, gravity and radiation matches Earth. No satellite navigation signals detected. Celestial navigation is not possible due to fog and overcast."

edited 28th Jan '13 2:25:19 AM by m8e

[Smoking Room]

Aseyu frowned thoughtfully. She opened her mouth, about to launch into a lecture about the nature of antimagic as wielded by her people, but then thought better of it. Talk was cheap, and there were more enjoyable methods of teaching people.

She closed her eyes, feeling with her mind for the places where she could strike and infuse with antimagic to temporarily disable Mai's magical abilities. Different than those of a human's, but they were definitely there. Then she opened her eyes and said, "hey, mind if I hit you? To temporarily disable your magic, I mean. Since it's your first time, I'll be gentle: you'll only be out of commission for five minutes, tops. But it could also be quite educational."

edited 28th Jan '13 6:19:12 AM by KillerClowns

Anita blinked and waited for Oracle to say more, but that seemed to be it.

"Oh." She cocked her head to one side. "Well, thank you."

She crossed her arms as she stood straight, trying to figure out what Oracle meant. She had been counting on the fact that if anyone knew where they were, it would be the giant talking spider.

Oracle said they were on some place similar to Earth. Not Earth, but similar. That wasn't what she had been expecting at all.

She looked through out the entry hall, more curious and confused than ever.

-Entry Hall-

Yuki looked down at Oracle. "I can assure you I'm not a threat, sweetie." Yuki said to the spider. "I'm just an artist that got an invite. My parents got one too, but after a dinner party they went to... Yeah."

I'm using the "ending" for Dinner Party.

Library

Anne's response was a quiet "Hmm." She looked away for a few moments, as if pondering.

"Well...I still think it sounds rather inefficient, but if you say so." she said. "I'm wondering if it might help the common folk to get out of the rut they've been in for who-knows-how-long. Then again, my current situation isn't really the best place to be when it comes to spreading ideas around."

She chuckled a little bit. "That, and if I told the dwarfs where I heard about it, they would probably ask me if I just ate a toadstool."

[Entry Hall -> Balcony -> Entry Hall]

Oracle lifted her body and the two foremost legs as high as possible. The front legs reached slightly above Yukis head. After taking a good look at Yuki she shrunk down into her normal position. She walked to the end of the hall, up the stairs to the balcony and climbed over the handrail.

Now hanging down from the balcony above Yuki she said: "My name is Oracle. Oracle and Tora have invites."

edited 28th Jan '13 9:07:43 AM by m8e

[Smoking room]

Inwardly, Mai snorted. Obviously, Aseyu didn't know that much about magic. This would be interesting. "What, you're going to hit my chakras to disrupt my chi?" she asked sarcastically. "Go ahead, but it won't do anything. That's been disproved several times over." She stepped into an open area to give Aseyu enough room.

"If you really want to disrupt my control over magic," Mai said, "you'll bonk me on the head. Get me stunned and disoriented, and I won't be able to concentrate enough to do anything." Actually, it might not be good to let that sort of thing out. Oh, well, too late now. "Anyway, go ahead and hit me, but a small warning: if you're too aggressive, I might reflexively attack you back."

Library

Markus continued to look up to the ceiling while Samira and Anne talked.

He brought his head up as a thought came to him, giving him view of a particular book. He got up from his seat as he pulled the book out and began to read slowly.

He turned his head toward the two chatting woman, "What do either of you know about magic?" He paused, "If it exists where you're from?"