[BAR]
Kyle blinked at Virgil before scratching his head in thought. The pilot's question had caught him somewhat off guard "Are we talking about 60's, 70's or 80's? And...do I really look that much like him? Your friend?"
—
"You don't pay?" Lara looked at Gwion quizzically, thinking back to when she had just gotten the keys to their room. She had assumed that the Takumi fellow not asking for payment meant there would be a bill afterwards. Is it all on the house?? She wondered.
Lara eventually descended from her speculations and raised an eyebrow. "Well, don't be surprised if you get a bill that you'll hang yourself over. Anyway, ask the abominable snowman for a Doctor Pepper."
"Ah!" A familiar voice said as Rick walked back in. "Nice to see you two getting along better. Gwion told me about your run-in with him."
edited 28th Apr '15 8:25:58 PM by TroPartner
[Lounge/Bar]
Virgil shook his head.
"You don't look like him. He was 29 when I knew him, and he'd be..." He thought for a second, doing the math, and frowned. 60? That can't be right. "Uh, older now. But you do talk and act like him. Ah, hell if I know the exact decade—I think a couple of the songs I heard him listening to were from the 80s, but I didn't really start listening to music until 2010, so I'm not sure. I guess it doesn't matter all that much."
edited 28th Apr '15 3:42:06 PM by SolipSchism
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Bar
Ai and Molly, eh? Amanda took particular interest in the former... while at first she seemed like a straight up goody-goody who would be frightened at her presence, she figured there must be more to her than that. She especially grinned at the mention of her last name, and was kind of surprised that she didn't take offense to her.
As for Molly, she had mentioned something about black smoke coming out of her wand. Amanda looked kind of doubtful at this, so while Molly continued talking to Ai, she reached for her wand and did in fact see a few black tendrils wandering around.
"Oh, and there's nothing to worry about regarding the black smoke," Amanda mentioned to Molly. "My wand does this all the time, especially after absorbing aural energy. And given the kind of spells I know, backfiring on me would be rather enjoyable in my case."
Then she folded her arms while still holding her wand upright, waiting to hear Ai's story.
Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.
Crazy Kiwi
Gwion turned and said "Doctor Pepper, please, Mark," then turned back just as Rick turned up.
He grinned. "Hardly a run-in - I delayed the bus, she told me so and I acknowledged her valid argument. Barely a walk-in, in my book."
He turned back to Lara. "Well, the blurb I saw said that accommodation and drinks were on the house 'within reason', so unless my Angostura Bitters, from Trinidad and Tobago, are exotic enough to be 'beyond reason', I think I'm pretty safe. And even if I do get a massive bill, I've still got a wad of cash, courtesy of a Hamilton gang, that Capital City and a new motorcycle failed to make much of a dent in." He looked thoughtful. "Come to think of it, the blurb mentioned nothing about food, so maybe that costs."
[BAR]
Kyle nodded with a smile, testing the temperature of his cocoa.
"Yeah, 80's sounds about right." He cocked his head towards the warp door, "Zak is more of a swing person." He grinned broadly, "Yeah, we're a bunch of oldies."
—
Rick gave a low whistle. "Wow, so you're loaded, then." He said as Lara's order turned up. The girl nodded a silent "thank you" to Mark before deftly pulling off the tab.
"Well, you already know a little about me." She began unexpectedly, instantly talking after taking a drink. "What's there to know about you?"
edited 28th Apr '15 9:30:23 PM by TroPartner
Crazy Kiwi
Lounge/Bar - Gwion
Loaded. Gwion grinned. "For a while, anyway, until it's nearly spent, then I'll have to find some more work."
"And that's pretty much me in a nutshell," he said to Lara. "I wander around, work when I need money and kick back when I have it. I know it sounds pretty immature but it's served me well enough for the last sixty years or so, so I haven't seen the need to grow up. I've got a few strings to my bow so finding work's seldom difficult and I get to see the world and meet interesting people - and frequently get paid for the privilege."
He took a sip of his drink. "I know very little about you other than you were in Capital City recently, so what else is there to know about you?"
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Finally, I get to post with Gon again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Game Room
Enough was enough. Gon just couldn't keep his mind off of Ari. Especially now, during the second time she had disappeared and vanished into another world. Although technically, Gon had vanished (along with Amanda, to his dismay) into this other world as well. In fact, now that he thought about it, if he wandered around this resort a bit, Ari and some of his other classmates might show up.
Lounge/Bar
As Gon exited the game room, he saw that there were quite a few people in the bar area. These people were gathered together mostly in groups of three, conversing and asking about each other's lives. As he surveyed the area, he wondered if one of his other classmates had in fact ended up here... but he didn't recognize anyone. No wait... there was one, though it was just Amanda, who had somehow managed to engage in conversation with two other girls. As he walked past, he couldn't stop staring at the pretty pink-haired one...
And then he tripped over the edge of a chair and fell to the floor, right next to where Gwion and Lara's group was. His face a bright red (both from seeing the girl and being embarrassed at his fall), he stood himself back up, nervously rubbing the black hair on the back of his head as he often did.
All he could muster was a nervous laugh, and a hurried "Oh hi, I'm Gon..."
There was an awkward silence, and then Gon was gone, having headed for the door on the other side of the lounge area. "Oh cool, a hot spring!" he blurted out when he arrived at the door. Actually, this was just about perfect, as he could use a bit of relaxing time. But before entering, he cast one last look at the group he had tripped near.
edited 28th Apr '15 11:03:48 PM by ladytanuki
Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.
Crazy Kiwi
Lounge/Bar - Gwion
Gwion was glad to see that the young man hadn't injured anything other than his pride and he carefully kept his face deadpan - the poor bugger was embarrassed enough without being smirked at.
Oh yes, he's gone alright, he thought. Totally.
The young man made a hasty and embarrassed exit in the direction of the hot springs - though perhaps a cold shower would have been more appropriate - and turned to look back before he went through the door so Gwion gave him a friendly grin.
[BAR]
Lara rolled her eyes at Gon's comical incident as Rick smirked at Gwion's description of himself. "Y'know, that's not too different from Lara. She has the wanderlust of an alley cat. Course, she comes home to sleep and everything. As for me, I teach at a self-defense school."
Lara spoke up, deciding it was her turn to talk to him. "Well, like I just said, Rick is my mentor, which pretty much equates to sparring partner. Self-defense, like he said. But anyway..." She got up from her seat, with soda still in hand, taking Rick's coat and luggage, "I'm kinda tired of carrying all this, so I'm finding our rooms."
"Keys?" Rick asked.
Wordlessly, already walking towards the warp door, Lara quickly pulled out the keys from her pocket and displayed them over shoulder.
Rick sighed as he watched her go. "So she disowned me again?"
Bar
Ai giggled a bit at the words exchanged by Molly and Amanda then sat in thought about the question of her powers. Her thoughts were distracted momentarily when she thought she saw a boy go running from the bar to somewhere else in the Resort which she found curious but decided not to question it and turned back to the other two. "I...don't really know how it happened. I think I was born with it, after all my sister has it as well. I wonder if it's hereditary.." she pondered the last part mostly to herself. She suddenly smiled and continued. "I have a feeling I have my powers because my parents are florists."
It probably wouldn't make sense to the other two, but to Ai it seemed to make perfect sense. "What about you two? You both have very interesting magic that I've never seen before." she asked, looking from Molly to Amanda.
Hot Spring
Xia glanced up from a book she was reading for a moment and pulled down her sunglasses to see a pair of women soaking in the hot tub who mentioned they were glad others were here. The pink haired girl raised a brow then said "Actually I'm surprised there isn't more people here then there are already." As if to answer her thoughts her head turned to see a boy just now enter the Hot Springs. The boy looked a bit young so she lost interest immediately but smiled at him nonetheless to not look threatening. Not that a young woman wearing a black bikini reading a book really looked threatening anyway.
edited 29th Apr '15 10:07:46 AM by Sphinxyness
"Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?"
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Hot Springs
As soon as Gon entered the hot springs, he found an older, bikini-clad woman looking right at him whilst holding a book. There were two other ladies about the same age in there as well. He froze in place, and his face turned bright red and sweaty. He could not stop staring at the three of them, but the situation was quickly becoming awkward... at least for him.
Quickly, he stepped backwards and shut the door in front of him, then scampered away to the nearest door that led outside. He didn't walk too far, because his exposed socks would easily get wet in the snow, so instead he leaned against the wall, heaving a sigh. "That was a close one..."
In fact, Gon was rather surprised that none of the girls were angry at him for barging in on them. Granted, they were older than the girls he was used to, and thus probably too mature for such reactions. Anyway, he stood out there for a while, but not too long, given the frigid weather outside. He was much more tolerant of warm climates than cold, after all. Having not many other options at this point, he headed back towards the lounge area...
Bar
"Hmm, interesting," Amanda mused as Ai explained how she got her powers, tapping her wand against her chin. "Of course, magic is not usually inherited based on the occupations of the parents, but who knows - they might have encountered a magic flower or herb of some sort while you two were being born.
"Anyway, I was not born with my powers - my parents were pretty much mugglesnote , to say the least. Instead, they were graciously given to me by my fath- I mean, my- uncle? He is quite proficient in the dark artsnote himself, but mainly turns his attention to psychic studies. He even teaches a parapsychology course at a university, and has recently started a project exploring psychic powers, by giving eight- no, seven... of his top students an ability or two to work with."
Conveniently enough, at that point Amanda saw Gon walk up to the bar, and she had to raise an eyebrow, as he was not much older than she was. "In fact, pajama boy over there," and here she gestured towards Gon, "is one such student, exploring the power of pyrokinesis. Of course, the flame I summoned doesn't quite fall under that - it would be more aural draining, I think, as it's not an actual flame. My powers focus more on causing pain and despair..." and at this point she seemed rather lost in thought, but quickly waved it away with a deep giggle, "...I like to think that it suits me very well."
Meanwhile, Gon walked up to the bar, trying to stay away from some of the other patrons for now. As soon as the bartender approached him, he spoke to him in a jaded manner, "Man, I could sure use a cola right now." He was slouching in his stool, his arms folded on the counter, looking almost half-asleep.
edited 29th Apr '15 6:03:20 PM by ladytanuki
Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.
Bar
"Mine is a very long and tragic tale," Molly said. "For starters, I wasn't always like this. I was once a hero, sworn to serve a goddess named Tiamat in her battle to protect humanity from her eternal foe, Nightmare. In return she gave me the power to control plants as well as the strength to lift buses. Somehow, I ended up using the former almost as much as the latter, but that's neither here nor there."
"In any case, Nightmare managed to project a physical avatar into my world, so my friends and I marched off to try and stop it. In the ensuing fight, I got slashed across the face and I... well, I died. It still sounds strange to say it. Nightmare gave my friends an offer: serve me and I will bring your friend back, or refuse and join her. Obviously, they turned their coats."
She put her hands under her chin. "And that's my story."
edited 29th Apr '15 9:03:58 PM by daird
Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!
Crazy Kiwi
Lounge/Bar - Gwion
Gwion grinned. "Wanderlust of an alley cat. Yeah, that about sums me up. In more ways than one." He paused, contemplating the double meaning. Is that why Lara left so abruptly? Had she just been called promiscuous?The whole father/mentor thing was puzzling in the wake of Rick's comment about being disowned but Gwion put it aside - it was none of his business and he couldn't see his life ever depending on knowing.
"So, self-defense training. You been doing that long?"
[BAR]
Rick looked up at the ceiling in thought.
"Let's see... It was two years before...and two years after." He let his head down and nodded in confirmation. "About four years, I think. It's a pretty public establishment, but I've taught a few personal students, you could say; few of them being Lara's friends."
Bar
Ai listened to Amanda's story with great interest and it was then she now noticed the scars on the girl's arms. She also saw the bags under her eyes and wondered if it was all linked to her power. "The power to cause pain and...despair.." she repeated, feeling a little nervous but this woman had been nice to her so far so she waved it off. She glanced back at the pajama boy, feeling like he was the one who had run away earlier but came back and murmured "Oooh.." in understanding. A pyro boy and a girl with dark arts magic? It was definitely an interesting pair.
Molly's story was much darker and made Ai look quite sad and sympathetic. "I'm so sorry that's happened to you. That sounds horrible. I..I wish I could help but I'm not sure how I would." she replied to her story. She clasped her hands together and over her chest in almost a prayer gesture as she looked between Molly and Amanda.
edited 30th Apr '15 9:53:10 AM by Sphinxyness
"Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?"
[Lounge/Bar]
Virgil chuckled and pushed the door open, stepping out and holding it for Kyle.
"It's a little hard to see through the trees, but I think that's the place there," he said, pointing off over a small hill. If one squinted, the edge of a roof was just visible in the middle-distance. On top of the hill, leaning against a tree, he thought he saw...
No. "Shouldn't be more than a five-minute walk," he said, pulling his eyes away from the hill.
[LOUNGE->PATHWAY]
Kyle shrugged into his coat, already eager to shred powder. "Five minutes is no problem." Walking through the door open, Kyle nodded a cheerful "Thanks" and walked along the path. "So, any idea why you decided on the Air Force as a job?"
Crazy Kiwi
Lounge/Bar - Gwion
"Four years plus private tutoring sounds a while," Gwion observed. "My own unarmed self-defense training's been pretty eclectic - a mix of formal styles and what I've picked up here and there from various people. If it works, I use it; if it doesn't, I don't. How about you? Any particular discipline or mixed?"
[Pathway]
Virgil inhaled deeply, thinking back. It was no use; he couldn't remember anything before the Belkan War in '95. Come to think of it, he couldn't remember anything before the preflight briefing for Operation Crossbow. April... April 2. Valais Air Base, Ustio. Bombers incoming, with no defense aside from an ad hoc squadron of unknown mercenaries who happened to be on hand. That briefing was where he'd met Larry, who became his best friend... for a while.
"I was a mercenary first," he said as he realized he hadn't answered the question. "Didn't actually join an Air Force until 2004. Can't really remember what made me want to fly in the first place, except... Well, the sky's always felt like home."
[BAR]
"A lot of it is boxing and fisticuffs, mostly." Rick answered. "My dad was an army man, so he ended up learning modern army combatives. He taught me a lot of it, and now Lara knows quite a bit."
[PATHWAY]
"2004?" Kyle asked, looking up at Virgil. "That's the exact year it is, back where we come from!"
[Pathway]
Virgil looked uncomfortable. He wasn't up for questions about how he could have been flying forty-plus years ago and yet be somewhere in his twenties now. He decided not to mention that he'd come from mid-2041 in his world.
He tilted his head. "I guess it makes sense," he mused, "if we've come from different worlds, that it might not be the same year in both worlds. Hell, we're probably not even using the same calendar—for all I know, what I think of as 2004 might line up with the mid-sixties in your world's development, or vice versa. Do you have spaceplanes yet? Or long-distance chemical laser weapons?" He thought for a second, trying to pinpoint the technological developments that defined scientific progress in Strangereal by eras. Well, there were nukes, obviously. Then he realized that much of Strangereal's really spectacular weaponry had been developed in anticipation of, and response to, a single event: the asteroid impact in 1999.
He looked sidelong at Kyle. "Railguns, maybe? Or satellite-borne laser systems?"
edited 1st May '15 12:55:48 PM by SolipSchism
[PATHWAY]
"You mean like space shuttles?" Kyle asked as they walked. Eventually, he shook his head. "Yeah, I guess they're like...spaceplanes."
He shrugged, his smile waning a little. "But we're not...really using them. Last year, one literally fell apart as it landed. The whole crew died."
After that, his smile rebounded. "But I mentioned that air-force scientist my dad used to know, right? He's actually done really awesome stuff. He's kinda the guy that got me hooked on engineering."
edited 1st May '15 6:45:21 PM by TroPartner
"Yeah, it could have been better. Still, the only option I have is to move forward." Molly glanced at Amanda. "As for the pain and despair magic, one of my friends ended up getting the latter out of her former hope and light powers. My boss has a very big love of irony. How does your magic work, anyway?"
Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!
[Hot Spring]
Izeri looked over at Gon, noting his reactions with a bored sigh. Qal, meanwhile, was mildly amused by it all, gently pulling Izeri closer to dispel any doubts about their relationship. When he scampered off, she said, "guys these days." Then, with the arm not wrapped around Izeri, she, with a few fluid gestures of her hand and wrist. She separated a small sphere of water from the pool and idly began to toy with it, making it circle her hand without quite touching it.
"So," she said to Xia, "good book? I'd be worried it'd get wet."
Isaac later, wanted to have something though.
edited 2nd May '15 11:06:46 AM by KillerClowns
Bar
Since the other sorceress didn't seem to be paying attention, Molly turned her focus back to Ai. "Your powers are rather interesting. How did you happen to come by them? Were you born with a green thumb, or did something happen to you?"
Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!