Character Mansion

[Entry hall]

Aseyu looked at Mai with concern. "Er, yeah, I know about them. I do know my fair share of American history — been living there with a history teacher for a decade, after all." She frowned. "Can't say I like where this is going. But continue."

Entry Hall

Anne glanced towards the exit, then back at the others. "It would be nice to head out now, but on the other hand I think it would be more polite to wait until everyone else is ready. Then again, we could just tell the others we're heading out while they take care of...other business...."

She paused for a few moments, and then shrugged. "I guess I don't have a real preference either, though I am mildly worried about getting yet another 'what is that thing?' from your friend. She..." I think it's a she, anyway. Sounded like one. "...didn't seem to notice me while we were still downstairs."

edited 7th May '13 12:38:14 PM by Yomegami

[Entry hall]

"Well," said Mai, "getting caught in a sexual relationship with the other species now is kind of like a less extreme version of being called a communist then. People... don't like it, to say the least. Your friends might turn against you, the possibility of blacklisting, and so on. Not to mention different..." She frowned, trying to pick the right words. "...tabs and slots for the inserting and receiving.

"And, yeah," she added, waving a hand vaguely, "on the other side, there's the whole 'consenting adults' argument and all its variations. But for most people, whatever way it happens, it's still apes fucking lizards."

Xavier glanced at Mai, then said to Anne, "I think she's adjusting to the whole interdimensional thing now. The worst you'll probably get from her is probably a raised eyebrow and resigned acceptance." He chuckled. "Be thankful my brother's not here. He'd be perfectly fine with you and immediately ask for a blood sample. He'd have the vial right there with him and everything."

As he talked, Xavier kept an ear on Mai and Aseyu's conversation. "I think they're almost done, there," he said, pointing a finger to the two of them. "So we might as well head out now. They'll know where to find us." He walked over to the front door and pushed it open, holding it for Anne.

[Dining room]

The priestess interrupts Lance's train of thought, he's rather stunned by the blow and the question barely even registers.

humping flowers? Is she....

"Well I," he turns to her, his words tentative and week, trying to desperately avoid offending her, "I do finance. For a king, he um... entrusted me with the majority of financial happenings? I've been slowly lowering tariffs standardizing our measures as well as the currency, improving roads, making the country appealing for business or whatever."

He looks back down at his salad and places it aside on a table, the women's words about rabbits echoing through his head. "So in short I sit at a table and do a lot of mathematical calculations and then throw in the towel and change policy."

[Dining Room]

The priestess clapped him on the back. "Definitely not a rabbit! I'm liking you a little more than I did before, which still doesn't mean much, but we're getting somewhere, aren't we? Well, I've always said there's no better way to make friends than have a nice little duel. Just for fun, you know. All injuries accidental. What do you say?" This was accompanied by a manic grin that told Lance that the only correct answer was "Yes, please."

edited 7th May '13 10:34:49 PM by SnowyFoxes

[Dining room]

"Well, I uh," Lance eyes her grin nervous, "It would be so rude to say no,..." he gulps then considers the consequences of what he's about to say, either you die now, or you die later "I can't help but accept." His voice shakes.

Entry Hall -> Outside

"Blood sample?" Anne asked, following Xavier to the door, "If that's anything like bloodletting..." She winced a bit. "I know I look awful, but I'm not sick, and I don't have any veins that are accessible for that purpose, anyway. Unless it's possible to draw blood from a bone."

Upon stepping outside, she shuddered a bit. It was a lot warmer when she got here, but then again it was also a bit lighter out as well. She stepped out of the path in front of the door as not to obstruct Xavier before looking up. She didn't see much, but then again the light coming through the house's windows probably had something to do with that.

[Dining Room]

"Wow..." Terron said. "That must have been tough for you. Now, if that's it, would you mind if I shared one of my stories?"

[Dining Hall]

Koyel looked Terron over, then said, "sure. Can't be any more bizarre than the tales that pig-fellow had."

Esa, however, considered the priestess and Lance. She suspected Lance would struggle to defeat a rock lizard, magic or not. Meanwhile, the priestess... well, the old legends had said the now-dead gods and their priests were nothing but childish, petty bullies with undeserved but mighty powers. This priestess had done nothing to disprove those legends. But while directly confronting her with this seemed unwise, another option presented itself.

She said, "y'know, defeating a city-dwelling economist ain't really a fit challenge for a mighty priestess. Probably be pretty boring. You'd prove nothing if you won, and on the very unlikely chance you lost... you'd look real silly, wouldn't you? Now..." she glanced at Terron and his four heavily armed companions. "Weren't you guys talking about how you wanted a good duel?" She motioned to the priestess. "I think you found it."

[Entry Hall]

Aseyu sighed and said, "their loss. Although honestly, the trouble with, as you so poetically put it, 'tabs and slots' isn't really that hard to overcome. Just ask any woman I've ever pleased, if you follow my logic."

edited 8th May '13 6:37:18 PM by KillerClowns

[Dining Room]

The priestess looked genuinely confused. "Someone who works for the king must have good combat training. I wasn't going to bring any magic into this, either, if he asked me not to. And I was going to go easy anyway. I'm not completely unfair."

She sized up the other four people. "Well, I'm out of practice anyway, so I'll take you all on after my warm-up."

[Dining Hall]

Lance was more than aware of the hopelessness of the situation, he was going to be flattened no matter the option. Still, his less than spectacular defeat might dissuade the otherwise headstrong and idiotic group. "I'm sure I'll be fine." His voice is more steady, but it hardly exudes confidence. "I mean after all, how bad could it be?" As if to demonstrate another bolt of electricity crackles between his hands. He glances over at the group momentarily.

You can't be that naive... can you guys?

edited 8th May '13 7:18:11 PM by Aqueos

[Entry hall]

"There's more to it than that," said Mai. "Body structure, texture — it's weird how squishy humans are — and, um..." She grew incredibly nervous, rubbing the back of her head. "See, chimeras kinda..." She looked down. "...on our..." Her voice grew a little quieter. "...so that..."

She stopped. Hell. Might as well just say it and get it over with. She took a deep breath and let it out again. Then, taking another deep breath, Mai said flatly, "Chimera dicks have spines on the end to help hold the male inside the female."

[Outside]

"No, nothing like that," said Xavier, shaking his head. "It'd be pretty much painless, and very quick, but... Asking someone for a blood sample like that is something people just don't do." He took a short breath and exhaled a small column of flame to reignite his torch; it was cold outside. "He'd want to study you as much as possible without strapping you to an operating table, and looking at your blood would be a good place to start."

Xavier sat down on the grass and looked up at the stars. At least the grass was dry. He thrust the torch down into the ground behind him. After a moment, he said to Anne, "Sorry, but it's slipped my mind already; did you say you liked looking at the stars a lot?"

[Entry Hall —> Outside]

Samira cleared her throat and said, "if anyone needs me, I'm going outside now." With that, she joined Xavier, Tamara, and Anne outside.

Unless Blackfire objects, I'm going to unilaterally say that Tamara has already left simply because it doesn't seem in-character for Mai to be that blunt with her around.

[Entry Hall]

Aseyu was utterly unfazed: her line of work required her to be prepared for unexpected surprises below the belt. "That would make the usual solution pretty uncomfortable," she said. "Depending on the definition of 'spines'. Although even in the worst case scenario, it's not really that hard to figure a way around it." She decided not to share exactly what her "way around it" was, though, lest she further shock anyone who was still recovering from Mai's impromptu biology lesson.

Outside

Anne raised an eyebrow. "Study me?" she asked, sounding rather confused. "Unless he knows his magic, I don't think he's going to get much information from me. Apart from my curse, I don't think I'm that different from an average human." She thought for a few moments, and then added, "Okay, besides my curse and what my status once was." She shook her head. "Assuming that this isn't one of those 'different times, different things'...things."

She nodded at the people who just exited the building before turning back to Xavier. "Anyway...Yes, I do. Before life decided it wanted to mess with me, I used to look at them from the balcony of the castle. Nowadays, there's a clearing to the back of the dwarf's house that serves the same purpose."

She looked up again. Now that her eyes had adjusted slightly, she could see some stars, but she didn't recognize any constellations at the moment. "The stars are ripe for storytelling. I remember spending a lot of time with Morgan out on the balcony, glancing up at the sky and exchanging tales we heard." She frowned. "I hope he's doing alright."

[Entry hall —> outside]

Mai mentally sighed. Of course. "I suppose it doesn't really matter, does it?" she asked, shrugging. "Since I'm not going to do it with you, and Xavier's not going to do it with you, and there aren't any other chimeras here. In any case, I'm heading outside." She turned

[Outside]

"Let's just say," said Xavier slowly, "that Vincent probably knows his magic better than most other people in the world. Don't know if he'd be able to help you, though that wouldn't stop him from trying."

He looked up at the stars again. "I never really looked up at the night sky much," he said. "Don't know why not. I mean, it's beautiful. It's simply..." He paused for a moment, then continued, "I can definitely see why ancient cultures decided to use the constellations for stories. What better mural than the sky?"

At that moment, Mai walked outside and, noticing Xavier, sat down next to him. "Well," she said to him, "tha-"

She blinked and leaned forward a little, looking around him at Anne. She cocked her head a little, her expression one of mild bemusement, and asked Xavier, "So who's your friend?"

"Oh, um..." Xavier slid back a little to give Mai a better view. "Anne, this is Mai. Mai, Anne." I hope this doesn't go south.

[Dining Room]

Terron grinned. "Okay. Let me tell you...about the Lord of Darkness. Eroniath."

"It was a few years ago. Keros and I, being teenagers who loved adventure and had plenty of opportunity to seek it, had heard that some villages on Draconis, the continent to the south, had been attacked. Well, attacked would be putting it mildly. They were utterly devastated. There was no sign of any structural damage, but of all the villages, there was a single survivor: a young girl, who wouldn't talk at all after being found. There were reports of some kinds of large dark coils rising from the villages, but nothing more than that.

"Keros and I looked at maps, and determined a few places to look. The first place we looked was a large crevice, but that didn't hold anything but golems and harpies. Next, we decided to look in one of the mountains in the small range just north of the attacks. That was when we found it."

Outside

Anne nodded. "It's certainly thought-provoking," she said, looking up again. Her eyes had adjusted as much as they could with the building's light so close by, and now she could see most of the stars. No constellations she immediately recognized jumped out at her, but she could see a few familiar individual stars.

She was about to comment on the subject further when the other chimera joined Xavier and this time noticed Anne. The reaction she got was actually less significant the ones she'd gotten from Xavier and Agustin - just a confused expression, and even that wasn't extreme. When Xavier introduced her as Mai, Anne tried her best to look pleasant without also looking scary and gave Mai her usual greeting headbob.

"It's nice to meet you, Mai," she said.

[2nd Floor —> Outside]

Dressed in her tunic and trousers again, Bianca headed downstairs. One of the leather pouches on her belt, which held food that she had eaten days ago, was awkwardly stuffed into the left sleeve hole to keep her shoulder from getting cold. Her knife and revolver were stuck in her belt. The tunic was of somewhat militaristic design, with the brass buttons and whatnot, and the bloodstains, which weren't quite successfully washed off, lent to that impression. Just before heading outside, she asked one of the clockworks to bring her a big plate of assorted pastries. Universe of origin was no matter.

The group hadn't gotten far off at all. Bianca approached, holding out the plate. "Can someone take this for a moment? It's a bit heavy. And you can all help yourselves."

[Entry Hall]

"I'm good, just looking for my friends. And you?" Andrew said. He didn't miss the people going towards the dining hall, but he was still full from his meal earlier, but he wasn't going to skimp on the change to eat some really nice food. Maybe a snack. Or two. Piano playing is real calorie-munching stuff.

[Sparring Room ==> Kitchen]

Gabrielle and Jonathan walked out of the sparring room, past the Cellar and up the steps into the kitchen. They were both ravenous from not eating anything for a while, and the kitchen smelled delicious.

Jonathan noticed the note and read it, already knowing what he wanted to eat.

"I'd like some quesadillas!"

[Entry Hall —> Outside]

Seeing no reason to stick around, Aseyu joined the rest of the group outside.

[Outside]

Samira nodded when she saw Aseyu and Bianca. Then she paused. Okay... from what I've seen, the Crimson and the Vespers are on completely different sides of the Feminist Sex Wars. And since I don't see Bianca as the kind of woman who'd agree to disagree with Aseyu like I have, each one would likely consider the other misogynistic. I don't want to hear them yelling "no true feminist" at one another all day. Plus, they utterly disagree on whether gods are literally necessary to the survival of the world or deranged lunatics to be overthrown. Which could eventually lead to an anti-magic-doused Elder... and if what Bianca told Kokabiel is true... I should definitely keep them apart.

She quickly took the plate from Bianca and looked it over. "Ooh," she said, spotting a familiar sight. "Baklava!" She took one eagerly, the considered her options. It looked like everyone was gathered togethere. Inconvenient for her purposes. "Aseyu," she said, "be a dear and get us some tea, would you?"

Aseyu headed off to do so, and Samira headed over to Xavier and whispered, "help me out — try to keep Aseyu and Bianca apart if you can. Trust me on this." Then, out loud, she said, "Bianca, come join us!" She took a seat. "By the way, this," she pointed to Mai, "is Mai. A friend of Xavier's."

[Outside —> Kitchen]

Aseyu headed to the kitchen. She nodded politely at Jonathon and Gabby, but her attention was caught by something else. Temporarily forgetting the tea, she sniffed the air, noting a familiar, spicy scent. Brontosaurus meat? Hot salad dressing? Someone had been cooking Yoth Province style. She frowned thoughtfully, considering whether or not to seek out the origins of this unexpected surprise.

[Dining Room]

"Normal enemies don't do that," Koyel said. "I mean, even slavers would leave behind the bodies of those who'd resisted and burn walls and such." He frowned. "You weren't facing a normal enemy, I take it. It'd have to be fast to leave no signs of a struggle like that. And I can't even imagine what it was achieving. Harvesting them, perhaps? No reason to kill entire towns, erase the bodies, and not even loot, after all. Probably no wonder the girl you found didn't talk."

edited 10th May '13 11:16:24 AM by KillerClowns

[Entry Hall]

"Oh I'm fine, fine." Ozzy said, "Mostly just chatting with folks. I gave up on trying to find whoever is supposed to be in charge here, but I've been able to meet a few new people." he turned his head to glance back at Hilda for a moment. "As a matter of fact, we were just about to fix up something to eat in the kitchen... or dining room, one of the two. You've been nothing if not a swell guy, it'd only be polite of me to extend that invitation to you. Care to join us?"

He smiled beneath his mask, though it wasn't noticeable outside of a slight shift in the cloth's fabric and maybe a wrinkle or two, but this wore off after about three seconds, accompanied by a small sigh. "To tell you the truth Mr. Moore, I'm a little nervous." Ozzy rubbed the side of his mask with his fingers, his eyes repeatedly flitting towards and away from Andrew before slowly settling on him. "You see, there don't exist many people who know about... about this— curse of mine." his voice had become quite hushed, "I haven't mentioned it to these people, but when you're eating in the same room together, there's no real way to beat around the bush about it. Maybe they've already guessed," he said, flicking one of his horns, "but— ...what I'm saying is, I'd appreciate having you there. I think would do well to inspire me with a little more confidence. And of course, I'm also inviting you for being an all around swell guy. What do you say?"

As he waited for an answer, Ozzy noticed another very strange being head outside. It was a little like the suited dragon man he'd seen earlier in the parlor, shortly after waking up. Feeling suddenly giddy, he thought he'd ask Hilda about it later. She was sure to have something to say.

[Outside]

"Nice to meet you, too," said Mai sincerely. After Aseyu, pretty much anything was nice. "So..." She coughed. "No offense, and I imagine you've heard this a lot by now, but what happened to you?"

"Right," said Xavier to Samira, nodding. "If I ever see her coming back out, I'll try to keep her distracted. Somehow."

He glanced at Bianca; he wondered why, exactly, it was so important to keep Aseyu and Bianca apart, but decided to go with the flow for now. When someone said, "you'll have to trust me on this", it was generally a good idea to trust them. Hell, he had used the same phrase himself a few times. Besides, he could always ask later.

Xavier slid a little closer to his torch and spread his wings out a little to enable them to catch more heat. Not so much that they would radiate a lot more heat, though; he wouldn't want to cool off too much out here.

Outside

"You're actually the first person who's asked me that directly," Anne replied, "So far, I've made quite a few people flinch, one person ask me if I was contagious, and one person ask me if I was dead. The answer to both those last two questions is 'no,' in case you were wondering about either." She shook her head again. "Anyway, the story of how I wound up looking like this is rather long and rather painful to recount, but the short version of it is that I'm cursed."

She nodded at Bianca when she came back outside, and then took a few steps back when Samira pointed out Mai to her. She did have a few questions of her own to ask Mai, but she figured the chimera would pay more attention to a second introduction, and she was willing to wait. In the meantime, she looked up and tried to look for constellations she recognized.

[Wine Cellar]

"My name is Claire." She said, amiably, seemingly unperturbed by the unusual presence emitted by Kokabiel's simulations. "And I am very pleased to meet you. I have some questions I'd very much like to ask you... That is, if you don't mind? You see, I know a little bit about you already, through some mutual friends of ours; Samira and Aseyu. From what they've told me, well... I'm quite eager to get to know you." She smiled.

[Outside]

Tamara stood by Anne and Xavier, also looking up at the stars and appreciating the night sky. While it was certainly pretty, she was curious as to why she couldn't recognize any constellations. Living out in rural California for the entirety of her life, she had never been unable to see the stars except on exceptionally cloudy nights. Tonight's stars were very different from last night's stars, and that bothered her. She suspected she was far away from her home, given all the strange people she'd seen and met, but she had only been walking... How could the stars be so different?

The unfamiliar stars bothered her somewhat, so she cast her gaze downwards instead. Walking on the grass - she was glad the ground was no longer muddy, at least - she went over to the porch at the front of the mansion and began using a corner to scrape off the mud that had coated her sneakers when she'd first arrived.

[Wine Cellar]

Kokabiel considered for a moment. <Certainly. But first things first. If I just... yes, that should suffice...> the Bird Jammer buzzed slightly, and then began to project a violet hologram of a large vulture. <I find it more easy to communicate with organics when I can use body language. The choice of avian form is to avoid the unsettling effects of subtle errors I frequently find myself making while in humanoid shape.> It tilted its head. <Now, I must ask: what did they tell you that made you eager to speak with me? Especially given that neither is particularly fond of me.>

[Outside]

Samira just gave a quick nod of thanks to Xavier.

edited 10th May '13 9:24:39 PM by KillerClowns