Character Resort

[Dining]

Rachel smiled thankfully at Jean and said, "thanks, but that won't be necessary. I get enough talk of sexuality — of all sorts — traveling with Asayu. As you can imagine." Then, after a bit of consideration, she added, "still. You must be really good at what you do if your, uh, higher-ups are willing to take the risk of your secret coming out. But I suppose with all the secrets you keep already... what's one more to the pile?" Curiousity got the better of her then, and she asked, "but... how do you do it? Keep that quiet about things, I mean? It can't be easy." And I'm not entirely sure I want to know. "But if you can't tell me... well, I understand."

[Dining]

Asayu nodded. She didn't really have anything to add to the discussion of immortals and humans — Vincent was doing excellently on that, as she had hoped. But he seemed done with the topic. So she said to Virgil, "there's something I'm not clear on. You talk of immortals dying. What... what exactly is it? Is it just that you live a really long time? Or can you live forever unless somebody kills you?"

Jean gave a dry chuckle. “Oh yes, that I can quite imagine.” Then he smiled wryly, looking more than a bit flattered- though, again, the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Thank you. I do take a modicum of pride in my profession, and the fact that I can suppress my baser urges. Though it isn’t always easy.” His voice turned dry and acerbic. “I imagine that there’s a lesson in there somewhere about how we shouldn’t let our baser instincts rule us and how we ought to always make our decisions based on sound judgment, but that’s a line of conversation for another time. The topic’s actually a bit of a pet peeve of mine, if you couldn’t tell, so let’s best avoid it. Unless, of course, you don’t mind me going on and on for an inordinate amount of time.” Rapping his knuckles on the desk called a robotic waiter over. “I’ll have a light continental breakfast and mineral water please. Would either of you like anything?”

[Dining]

Rachel laughed and said, "well, I've never heard of a politician who doesn't like talking!" Then, her voice gently teasing, she added, "but yes, I do believe you've lectured us enough today, professor. But don't worry, I've already eaten." She paused, not wanting an awkward silence to form. "So... uh..." New topic, less likely to inflame passions... "It's nice to be some place that serves real food. I'm actually kind of sad I stuffed myself with those eggs...." she paused. "Oh, who am I kidding? I could do with some salmon. Waiter, salmon and a glass of milk!"

[Dining]

"Nothing for me, thanks," said Kat, shaking his head. "I'm not hungry at the moment."

He searched for another train of thought to pick up on. Preferably something non-science; they probably had enough of that.

"What's racial integration like in your timeline?" he asked. "Assuming our timelines are the same up to the October Crisis, when they split, some pretty major shifts were taking place in civil rights in the United States. I heard some rumors about marching on Washington DC for the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, but the Yexorian invasion pretty much put the kibosh on any plans that might have been made." He snorted. "Even if it did happen, it couldn't have been that big. There's no way that many people could have organized."

The sun had climbed higher in the sky, casting shorter shadows and warming the sand on the Beach.

[ Current Time: Late Morning ]

Rooms

I guess the wings weren't a problem after all...

Qrlil regained consciousness quickly, but the phantom scents were slow to fade. She untangled herself from the blankets and, blinking rapidly in the light, gave a long sighing hiss of self-annoyance.

Stupid subconscious.

For a moment, she simply considered slumping back down and going back to sleep. It was, after all, a vacation. But not one where she wanted just to stay in bed for hours. With another sighing hiss, she blinked rapidly until her vision was no longer groggy and stood up, adjusting her robes until they were clean. This time, she made certain to leave them at their normal opaqueness.

The first thing to do was breakfast, presumably. She walked to the door and headed down the hallway, towards the portal/door.

Figured I ought to post at least once tonight - don't expect a response until tomorrow, though. If anyone whose character hasn't gotten up yet would like to interact with Qrlil, feel free to have them catch up to her before she reaches the door to the dining room - otherwise, I'll have her get there tomorrow.

[Dining]

"We immortals can live forever," Virgil explained, "And any wounds we have will heal almost immediately... but there are ways to kill one of us... ways enemies of our race have figured out." Taking out a cigarette and lighting it, he added, "It's sickening."

[Dining]

"Sickening," said Vincent flatly. "You can die, so it's sickening." He rolled his eyes. "Oh, puh-lease. Death is a part of life. Everything dies eventually. Hell, Kat over there's over five thousand years old, but he's going to kick the bucket naturally in one or two hundred years if he lives that long. If you can heal almost instantly but are stupid enough to die anyway, you practically deserve to die.

"And consider the implications of being unable to die, ever, especially in relation to your enemies. Would you rather get shot in the head and die, or be perfectly immortal, get secured to a weight, and dropped into the Marianas Trench? Or sealed into a coffin and fired into the sun? Or buried alive? Or locked into an airtight room, withering to a skeletal frame from a lack of nourishment and your lungs burning from an atmosphere with no oxygen? And this is just off the top of my head; I could come up with loads of fates way worse than death, given the time, if I know the person I'm doing it to can't die."

[Rooms]

Xavier rolled out of bed and pushed himself to his feet. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he dressed and stepped into the hallway, careful not to wake Saliha.

In the corridor, he noticed Qrlil. He considered what Saliha had said yesterday; figuring it'd be good to at least initiate conversation, he stepped up and said, "Hey."

[Dining Room]

Virgil began laughing at Vincent, as he proved only to jog his memory slightly.

"Believe it or not, 2 out of those four scenarios you mentioned have already happened to me. As you can see, it didn't prove to slow me down as much as others thought. My soul was also trapped inside the mind of another immortal for about 30 Years, if that's any less cliche."

[Rooms -> Dining]

Christine awoke from what was a rather heavy sleep. It had been a while since she had a bed to herself, so it was quite a relaxing experience. She prepared herself for the following day at the Resort, and made her way downstairs for breakfast. Upon seeing Virgil at one of the tables, latched onto Asayu... which was good... possibly, she imagined what Noah would do if he was trapped with this madman. She then remembered that Noah shared a body with the guy for 30 years, so she built up her courage, and walked over to casually speak with him.

"Hi Virgil! What'cha talking about?"

Virgil, looking up from the table, replied;

"We were just talking about how it's possible for immortals to be killed."

"Oh, you mean by destroying their catalyst?"

Virgil glared at Christine.

"Actually, I wasn't going to explain to them the actual method, I was just saying it was possible."

Christine, upon realising that Asayu had likely heard her, and now knows that Christine was aware of a way to kill Virgil, sat down on a free chair, embarrassed.

"Oh... sorry..."

[Dining]

Asayu looked over to Vincent and said, "here's one you might have missed. The Slaver Kings were given immortality... then flayed alive, with their skinless bodies left hanging from the Tower of Xaushu, to be whipped by an eternal dust storm. A testament to why you should earn the wrath of old-fashioned gods." She shuddered, then explained, "it's not just for punishment, though Sulah knows they had something like that coming. Their agony powers the unholy magics of that place, their screams are amplified whenever enemies draw near, and Amu still wears their flayed skins as a coat." She grimaced, then added, "I'd feel sorry for them if they weren't the Slaver Kings."

edited 9th Nov '11 8:36:27 AM by KillerClowns

[Dining]

"Then they didn't do it hard enough," said Vincent to Virgil. "If they were actually serious about incapacitating an immortal, they'd put more effort into it."

He said to Asayu, "Like I said, that was just off the top of my head. Give me a few moments to think about stuff." He looked at the ceiling. "Um... submerged in acid... crushed... spines shoved into every square inch of skin... burns completely covering the body... really, I could go on.

"But some of the worst things are the least obvious. Where I work, for the absolute worst of the worst people, there's something called absolute solitary. Basically, you get put in a pocket universe that's a white, flat void. When in there, you don't need to eat, sleep, or go to the bathroom. That's all there is to it." He shuddered. "But the complete lack of neural stimulation means most people go insane quickly. Only fifteen people have been put it there. All of them but two somehow, without any tools for the job, committed suicide within a week. The two that didn't took eight days."

"They broke themselves? Why'd they do that?"

Lilith peered into Vincent's eyes. She blinked, and cocked her head to the side, something which really should have been impossible given she was balancing herself upside down on the rim of Vincent's water glass.

"Do you know, mister dragon?" She smiled serenely.

edited 9th Nov '11 9:42:10 AM by KSPAM

[Dining]

"That's... brutal," Asayu said, horrified. I wonder how it works? A pocket dimension could be far enough to separate Amu from his source of power. "But I think if anybody here ever wants to eat again, we need a new topic." But I must remember to ask Christine why this 'catalyst' hasn't been smashed yet.

Then she spotted Lilith. With cheer and relief, she said "oh, hello! It's the Lilith I haven't slept with yet! So, uh... how are you today? Have a good breakfast yet?" Can we stop talking about forms of eternal torture now?

edited 9th Nov '11 9:41:36 AM by KillerClowns

[Dining]

"Protip: not a dragon," said Vincent, yanking the glass away. "See the shirt? I'm a chimera. 'Dragon' is a bit of a slur, so I'd prefer you not use it. But if you do, meh. I don't care." He glanced over to Kat. "But don't call Kat that," he muttered. "He does care. A lot.

"They broke themselves because of extreme sensory deprivation. It's a bit complicated, but no one fully understands it yet, and no one wants to do too much research into it, because then they'll..." He put a finger gun to his head and mimed pulling the trigger.

"And don't balance on my glass. You'll get hair in it."

edited 9th Nov '11 10:22:56 AM by TeraChimera

"Extreme... sensory... deprivation..." Lilith said, spelling out the words. "Sounds like those tube things they used to keep me and Adam in when we were kids. Don't remember much about 'em, 'cept I didn't like 'em. Grandpa Verne said I was born grumpy. Wonder if Adam felt that way when they took him out of the tube. I dunno. Hard to tell. He's always grumpy." She frowned.

Suspended in the air seemingly by cartoon logic, Lilith swiveled around to face Asayu. She didn't particularly understand what she'd meant by that first bit, but she decided to talk to her anyway. "Mornin'! Haven't had breakfast yet. Can I have yours?"

[Dining]

Virgil looked at the strange girl, bewildered by her behaviour.

"I'm sorry, but who or what the hell are you?"

Christine meanwhile just turned to Lilith and smiled. It was nice to see someone as innocent as she was.

Jean gave a comically overplayed grimace, then shrugged. “True, neither have I. I suppose the nature of the job just attracts the sort of person with a penchant for giving long-winded speeches much like the US Marine Corps has the habit of attracting bloodthirsty manchildren…” He tapped his chin in thought, before snapping his fingers. “Ah! Place that serves real food- that reminds me- yes, waiter, I’d like to change my order to something different. Give me anything that can be found for under ten dollars at Denny’s, if you’d be so kind.” Turning to Rachel, he explained. “I must admit, I’m not exactly looking forward to this. But, I’ll be visiting the States in a few weeks so I might as well get an idea of how the Americans eat.”

[Dining]

Rachel sighed and said, "you underestimate us." Then she stopped for a moment to consider the implications of what she'd said and heard. She'd said 'us', but the way Jean talked, he didn't consider Rachel — who, despite her immigrant parents, had been born and raised in Seattle — an American. In a stern, but not rude tone, she added, "but I assure you, there is far more to America than a mass-produced Denny's menu. I would expect a man who considers himself an internationalist to know that."

[Dining]

Asayu considered the newcomer. "No," she said to Lilith, speaking as thought to a small child. "You may not have my breakfast. You may sit down and order your own breakfast." Then she smiled and added, "but it can be whatever sort of breakfast you like, if that's any consolation."

Sorry, Tera Chimera - been busy compiling my wall o' text in the discussion thread.

Rooms

Qrlil blinked and looked over at the reddish scent. "Oh, hello, Xavier," she said in response.

There was silence afterward for a moment. She couldn't think of anything to say without seeming like she was being overly inquisitive about his personal problems (which would admittedly be true...)

She stepped towards the portal/door. "So, are you going to breakfast as well?" she asked.

edited 9th Nov '11 12:10:40 PM by nrjxll

“Well, yes. I’m well aware. Still, chain stores like that predominate, and it’s where a good portion if not the majority of the lower class American population get their food.” A few moments later Jean’s ill-considered meal arrived, somewhat genuinely, in a flimsy Styrofoam case. He tentatively opened the container to consider the objects inside. Objects were just what Jean thought of them, as he had knowledge enough about what went into making them that he could only tentatively call the meal set out before him ‘food’. Picking the burger up with clear reluctance, he took a careful bite, chewed, then swallowed. He did this several more times until the burger was gone. He then thought he saw Rachel about to say something and raised her hand to preempt it, saying, “Before you ask how that was, I feel like I’ve swallowed depleted uranium.”

A motorcycle revved along the road, before coming to a stop in the Parking Lot. On it was a moderately short girl wearing an astonishingly small amount of protective gear, besides the helmet. She parked the bike and walked into the Resort.

She was wearing a white dress, and had long, straight, dark blue hair, reaching to her waist in back, but cut diagonally in front, revealing only one eye clearly. Think Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl + Shiny Midnight Black + Peek A Bangs (I.e. not too creepy, but still kinda)

Hey, this place looks pretty nice. Sakuko thought, walking through the main doors, Now, to check out the bar.

Sakuko walked through the lobby into the Bar / Dining Area, and asked for a menu. Wow, this is a really long menu. she thought.

She's available for interaction currently, otherwise I'll have her go talk to someone next post.

[Rooms]

Xavier nodded. "Yeah. Just got up." He yawned and stretched as much as he could; he couldn't extend his wings fully, as the hall wasn't wide enough. "Don't know what I'll get, though."

He paused, thinking. Qrlil and Saliha had talked a lot last night. Maybe she put Saliha onto that train of thought? Probably. Worth a shot.

"I don't mean to be rude," he said, "but did you and Saliha talk about relationships last night? Because just so you know, everything went fine. I realized the same thing she did, when she pointed it out, and everything turned out surprisingly well, all things considered. If you didn't talk about relationships, then what I'm talking about is none of your business."

"Anything?" Lilith exclaimed. She'd never been told she could have "anything" before. Her aunts and uncles had always just told her what she could eat, and it was always that grey sludge stuff. So, given the first opportunity to have "anything", Lilith knew what she must do.

"Gimme one of everything!"

edited 9th Nov '11 12:59:34 PM by KSPAM

Rooms

Qrlil walked a little towards the door, then turned her head back to face Xavier.

"We did," she said, "although actually, I think she went in completely the opposite direction of my advice. My personal belief on the subject was that, while you two may not have been in love, there was enough of a relationship of some kind there that it seemed foolish to break it off now, when it would end on its own when you both left the Resort in a few days. I thought that she might as well enjoy what there was - even if it was not what she originally thought it to be - while it lasted."

She walked on a little more, then stopped, turned around, and raised her head slightly. "Er, I do not mean to be too personal. I barely know you. So if you have any offense to what I was saying, I sincerely apologize."

edited 9th Nov '11 12:56:06 PM by nrjxll

[Dining]

Vincent glanced at Asayu. One of everything? This would be interesting. Lilith was either incredibly naïve or she didn't get what 'anything' meant.

Sulfuric acid coming right up. Don't worry, we stirred the bubonic plague in without shaking it. And on top of the chocolate cake, we put on ten cups of nutmeg, just like you ordered.

[Rooms]

"No," said Xavier hurriedly, "no no no. I'm not offended. I probably would've come to the same conclusion in a while anyway. It's not like we're avoiding each other like the plague; it's just our relationship is platonic now, instead of puppy love. We're still friends."

She talked with Vincent about something, didn't she? "Speaking of last night, am I allowed to ask what you talked about with Vincent? Or is that off-limits? Because if it is..." He put up his hands. "...I can totally understand."