An Ordinary Oddball
Old Maken's Pawn Shop
Kayne's eyes widened at the sheer selection in the pawn shop, walking in a daze towards a small windup doll sitting on a table. Its arm was broken off at the hinge and it was slumped sadly to one side. The key in its back was missing.
"I used to have a doll just like this one when I was small..." Kayne murmured, nostalgia lacing her voice. Moko had fallen asleep on the walk to the shop and was in his disguised state.
In a trance, her hands had snapped the doll's arm back into the hinge and secured it with a pin made out of a stray paper clip. Groping about on the ground, she located the missing key and stuck it into the doll's back where it was supposed to be.
Winding the key made the doll walk several steps before pausing. Kayne nodded in satisfaction at her work.
"I-I'm sorry about that," she stuttered once she came to her senses. "Rufus sent us. He wants to know where you got Andy from. I don't know why he wants to know that, but I'm running this errand for him to pay for my mashed potatoes...at least, I think it was potatoes."
"They were orange!" This was said with significantly more enthusiasm.
Edited by JumpingFruit on Nov 18th 2018 at 5:08:00 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
Breath of the Sun
Old Maken's Shop of Mysteries
They found the shop, following Wolf's sharp nose. The place was old, full of trinkets and treasures. Wolf merely grumbled, annoyed with the dust and age of the place. It reeked of one close to the End, but he knew there was no one here to take, just yet.
Lamb calmed him with a touch as they entered. Her eyes locked almost immediately onto the old shopkeeper, but she turned to observe Kayne messing with a wind-up doll. She restored the broken toy to function once more (why? Time would simply claim it again), and Lamb tilted her head at the display. Then Kayne seemed to remember why they were here, and Lamb bowed slightly to the old shopkeep.
"Yes," Lamb said, "We, too, are curious how one finds something like this... Andradite.
Wolf, meanwhile, had noticed Garbhán, and now circled him curiously, sniffing at the wolf-man as though he was unsure whether or not to try and assert dominance. He bared his teeth, rearing up to look imposing, but there was little intent behind it - only a display of strength, for Wolf knew that little Lamb didn't like him breaking things without reason.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
To Old Maken's Shop of Mysteries
After listening to Rufus' tale and lazing around at the bar, Asmodeus became a bit bored and decided to follow the others along on this little quest. Who knows - maybe something neat might happen? At any rate, she followed the others along to Maken's shop.
It was old, dusty, and looked like one of those antique shops from the human world. Full of all sorts of useless junk... or perhaps not? It was hard to say what some of these trinkets were even used for.
"Yo! Thought I'd drop by and see what I can find out about this 'Andy' girl."
The Plum and Only
Old Maken's Emporium of Crap
"Yeah, it's fanciest in the kinda 'blow your own arm off like a dipshit' fashion I've been hearin' about lately." Garbhán muttered dryly, with a toothy smirk showing across his face. "An' relax about that markin' yer turf shit, if I whip it out an' start pissin' on yer floor, just means I ain't been drinkin' enough. Heh." he continued, leaning on one of the shelves with a doubt it could really take his weight. He didn't even notice Wolf initially but as soon as he did, his dry smirk widened.
"So, this yer pet's regular kinda greetin'? I usually go fer a good handshake but if bein' aggressive's how we're gonna do about it, I can shoot him in the face..." he said to Lamb, his voice unusually light for someone threatening lethal force.
Curse the ill fortune that led you to me.
One Brunch Man
Old Maken’s Shop of Mysteries
With the promise of two hundred cryptcoins tucked under one arm and a reassurances that they wouldn’t have to pay for Kaguya’s sparking monstrosity (“No, I meant—ah, whatever.”), Magicaloid pushed her way into the front entrance of Old Maken’s Shop of Mysteries, holding the door open for Kaguya behind her.
“This will put us approximately six hundred and thirty-two thousand yen in the black,” Magicaloid said, momentarily slipping into the affect of an Economics professor rather than a cutesy robot from the future, while pink-dominated eyes took in the exotic shelves of multiversal merchandise, “which means we can comfortably shop for supplies without going through anything we brought with us. A sound investment, however you look at it, and for just a few hour’s worth of work!”
With a passing glance at the others that had both accompanied and gotten here before them, along with the titular Old Maken himself, Magicaloid turned to fully address Kaguya. “First things first. The old man says he didn’t see anything important, but what do you think the chances are that he runs this place alone? If we can track down some of his staff, or even something on the shelves that talks, they might have noticed something that Maken didn’t.” Magicaloid’s gaze strayed back to the man in question, visibly sizing him up as her cross-shaped pupils scoured his form. “If you can handle that, I’ll talk to the man himself. The bull man and the crystal girl might be willing, but their wallets are weak. If the old man has a price they weren’t willing to pay, I can give him something more to chew on than good will and naivete.” She said, her hand coming to rest unconsciously on a pink satchel by her side. “If anyone gives you any trouble, just bat your eyelids a little, that’ll throw them for a loop.” She said, looking back to the lunar princess with a cock of her head. “Unless you’d rather switch. I don’t really mind.”
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~
"Of course I don't mind." Kaguya walked with her hands clasped together, bound in her sleeves as her attention darted between her little accountant and the various baubles on the shelves around her.
Makoto was young, at least by her own admittance, but she seemed to be very educated in all things mercurially economical! It was a little odd, kids usually didn't seem to be that invested in these things, but at least Kaguya would not have to worry about being ripped off.
The things for sale were only interesting enough to catch her cultured, perhaps jaded eye for a moment at a time before she passed onto the next. Except the noodles, those she'd have to get. Everything else had little effect on that wise moon woman. This was just the same as Kourindou.
"It's likely that someone else is here, though maybe I'll have to dig a little. Possibly literally, even." This hardly seemed like a clean store. "I doubt anyone's going to give me trouble, though. Come on," she chuckled melodiously, "I want an adventure too. Right now, we're basically just like some kids on the search for a dog, coming in from the night."
She let the Magicaloid go attend to her own business, and turned to her own: finding some customer service people.
Ducking under a string of gourds that rattled as her head brushed against them, she peeked around to one of the less inhabited aisles. "Hello, anyone? I've got some questions about something."
Mancunian Candidate
Girimehkala, Old Maken's Shop of Mysteries
Girimehkala had known the rock calling itself Andradite for some weeks, on-and-off, and though at first her stubborn inedibility had affronted him, he'd come in time to admire the workmanship. His master had once called the Golem a product of Pygmalionist incestuity, words of high praise; Girimehkala didn't have the first idea what that meant, but figured this one had a good head on her shoulders. He knew because he'd broken a chair on it and she'd come back for seconds.
Besides, Rufus was alright, but he knew a whole lot about mixing drinks and cutting deals and not much about much else. Andy had an eye for the finer questions in life, the real issues, and could make careful incisions to the heart of an argument which almost, but not quite, made up for her being completely and utterly wrong.
"Listen, girly," said Girimehkala, careening into Old Man Maken's Shop of Mysteries like a familiar stench, "Rufus is a powerhouse for sure, but Viscera's the real deal. You seen him in action same as I have, and you know that man's a gods-damned artist once he gets some momentum going. Sure, let's say old Rufus catches him sleeping and gets in the first hit. He ain't getting the second, and he sure ain't getting the third. He's mincemeat before the third round. When you swing at the king, you better not fuckin' miss. All I'm saying."
He sniffed victoriously, which with four feet of nostril was a major bodily event, and surreptitiously palmed a handful of powder packets as he rounded on the proprietor.
"Howdy, Maken, you cheatin' old bastard. Just like the fresh meat here says, Rufus is tryin' to puzzle where you stole Andy from. Think you can remember that far back?"
One Brunch Man
Old Maken’s Shop of Mysteries
Magicaloid nodded in solidarity with her traveling companion as their missions were set, then watched her retreat into the shelves before turning to the task at hand. Taking her place on the outskirts of the colorful collection of characters that had cropped up around her target with the hope of avoiding attracting too much attention to herself, her resting hand made good on its promise as it proceeded to unzip the satchel beneath it. If we’re looking to catch a dog, she thought, musing whimsically on Kaguya’s turn of phrase, better let the cat out of the bag.
If one were to believe note the blurb on Magicaloid 44’s in-character bio for the hit mobile game Magical Girl Raising Project, Magicaloid’s hand reached through time and space (and sense) to pick up a random object from nearly one hundred years in the future. With one eye and ear on the barrage of several similarly-worded questions addressing their host, Magicaloid turned the rest of her attention to the item coming out of her satchel, along with the flood of instinctive knowledge of what it was and what it could do, contemplating what—if any—ways it could help with their investigation.
Edited by Uncandescent on Nov 23rd 2018 at 3:10:32 PM
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~
A dogged fellow, aren't we?
Andradite, Shop of Mysteries
"Oh, I don't dispute that Viscera has the advantage when it comes to physical power, and I might even concede the point on technique too." Andradite's clear tone rebuffed Giri's gruff lisp from somewhere around waist height as the second group finally caught up with the rest.
"I Just don't think you're taking Rufus' knowledge of the terrain seriously enough." She raised one slender finger in emphasis, tone as grave as such a serious subject required. "If they're going to fight it would happen in Forever and a Day, and Rufus knows every inch of that - oh, we're here."
Andradite looked around as she ducked underneath Giri's arm and stepped in towards the counter. This place had been her first experience of Dive, and it hadn't really changed much since the last time she was here - just as full of fascinating objects and just as poorly illuminated.
"Hello, Maven." She called out in greeting, standing on her toes so her waving arm and the top of her refractive green head could be seen over the people already gathered. "These people are adventurers and they're on a quest for me. We're investigating the person you bought me from, so... is there anything you didn't tell me last time?"
Edited by LittleMako on Nov 23rd 2018 at 3:26:21 AM
sword of promised halp
Old Maken's Shop of Mysteries
"Orange taters, huh?" smirked Old Maken. "That'll be the Synderian Special, boss, and Rufus knows what that is. Never even been to Synder."
The crooked old man had very few teeth left, but those that remained in his wrinkled mouth were practically buffed to a shine. It lent him a strangely off-kilter air, as if he were both too old to care about dental hygiene and too young to let go of appearances. Then his eyes caught Asmodeus.
"Well," he whistled. "Ain't you a looker. I'd say you were more suited down at Mama Jupiter's, but we're no discriminators here at the Shop of Mysteries. Nope, sure aren't. Seeing as you're all here for the same thing - the article herself, of course..."
He cocked his head in Andradite's direction.
"I wasn't lying to you the last time you came here, Andy, but I wasn't telling the whole truth, either. I didn't want you going after the folks who boxed you up, because it stands to reason that whatever group cracked your face in the first place could probably do it again, no problem. And I like you, Andy. You and your hard-ass stone heels. Now you have some friends along for the ride, however, I guess I can speak freely."
Old Maken shuffled along the aisle, beckoning them to follow. As he tapped each shelf with his stick, the knick-knacks and gee-gaws began to rearrange themselves, jostling and scrabbling to attention. The gunpowder packets flipped into production order. The power-cells lined up, fullest to most secretly depleted. The cup ramen did nothing, because that would require five hundred milliliters of hot water and at least two minutes.
"From my investigating, Andy," said Old Maken, "I think t'was the Red Ring that got you. They probably took a shine to you, if you'll pardon the expression."
This was not a light revelation. Few trading syndicates were as multiversally feared as the Red Ring. Every slave market in the Mausoleum sourced at least one of its chattels from them, and their reach was practically unlimited. If you crossed them, you tended to die. Or worse.
"I figured their middleman was going to sell you off to some unscrupulous adventurer here in Dive, some suicidal fool who wouldn't mind a slave to carry his pack. Or pleasure him. Or both. So, well, I bought you first."
There was no more smile on Old Maken's face. He looked like he had already resigned himself to death.
"The middleman came to me, so there's no telling where he is now. I don't even know if he's on this planet. But well, if you're not delving, there's only three places you can go in this town..."
He tapped his stick on the ground. The shelves stilled.
"My fuzzy joint, Rufus' wet puddle, and Mama Jupiter's razzle-dazzle hellhole."
A scent caressed Kaguya's nostrils, the fastidious smell of ground ink and old paper, beckoning her like a slender hand. At the end of it was a single scroll, fallen on the ground, old and yellow with age. On it was written, in elegant kanji:
Do not trust the old man. He is not what he seems.
There was no date on the scroll, but in the center of the scroll was a single seal: a rust-red eye, shackled from sclera to iris with eight crossed chains.
Your answer will determine your worth.
Then the eye blinked wetly, rattling like a skull, and the scroll was gone.
In Makoto's hand was a syringe, bright orange and extremely large. On it was written:
And below it, in smaller text:
It smelt rather worryingly of bleach.
Edited by troydenite on Nov 25th 2018 at 1:33:27 AM
'Being around you guys makes me go "wtf" instead of pondering the ever increasing dread of time' - EchoingSilence, 2023
Breath of the Sun
Old Maken's Shop of Mysteries
"Yes... fight, flee, struggle against the End!" Wolf grinned, drooling maw opened wide, as if actually inviting Garbhán to shoot him.
"Not here," Lamb called, and Wolf pulled back, still snarling, but no longer threatening the wolf-man, "not yet. And he is not my pet."
"We are the Kindred." They said, in eerily perfect unison, the eyeholes of their masks both locked on Garbhán, just for a moment.
Then Wolf retreated to her side as she listened to the old man's story. Wolf was still annoyed that it wasn't quite Old Maken's time, but Lamb's touch soothed him as always.
After the tale, Lamb tilted her head. "Then tell us where to find this 'Mama Jupiter's hellhole', and we shall find him. Also, if you have anything that might still hold this man's scent, it would be appreciated."
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
An Ordinary Oddball
"Nice," Kayne commented on Maken's shop rearranging itself to muffle the noise of their conversation.
"I think I passed that place by when I came here. Not sure if I can find it again...so I'm afraid that I'll have to trouble you for some directions."
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
Mancunian Candidate
Old Maken's Boutique of Bullshit
Girimehkala raised three hands, looking as perturbed as he could manage under a hundred pounds of prehensile nose.
"Just hold up there a second, greenhorns." He said, and pointed a gnarled finger at Maken. "See, old man, I don't know much about all this Red Ring stuff, but I've heard my share, and I gotta say - what I've heard makes me feel a little uneasy. And when I feel a little uneasy, say, when I have to step up against the Red Ring without possession of all the facts, shit starts getting broke. Expensive shit. Just can't help it. You remember, right, Maken? Good times."
Somewhere along the way, he'd drawn a pistol. It wasn't pointing at anyone in particular, not yet, but there was something in the casual gestures of the barrel to remind the world the future was liable to change.
"Now, so we're clear, Maken, I ain't accusin' you of bein' a liar. I seen your prices, I know damn well you're a fuckin' liar, but you're a harmless liar, so let's say you get the benefit of the doubt. You aughta spend that wisely, old man. Tell me, what the fuck kind of business does a big-time operation like the Red Ring got in a shithole pile of dirt like this town?
Edited by OG-Sama on Nov 24th 2018 at 11:58:49 AM
...How odd.
Scrolls usually took the time to stay around, in case you didn't read them clearly enough the first time. Kaguya stared at the spot occupied by that roll of parchment for a few moments, taking all of that in, before she expressed her opinion on the matter: a shrug.
Still, it seemed as if she was alone in this part of the store. Unless there were others, more conversational ones perhaps, she'd have to turn around and keep that knowledge in mind.
...She had an idea of how to go about this, though.
Kaguya returned to the storefront just in time to see her porter start getting uppity, perhaps rebelling against his place in the hierarchy through other means? Still, if that paper had any truth to it, being so upfront wouldn't work well.
"Let's not be so untoward," she said with another chiming laugh, gliding into the scene. "It's just unreasonable to start accusing him like that, my friend. After all, I see nothing wrong about him!"
She came forward, trying to place herself in between Big Boy Grim and the shop owner. Like this elephant could do anything to her...
"Perhaps you should go look into this man's lead, before you run out of ideas and begin accusing those in front of you. I'd ask one of you to stay, though. I might have a very heavy load that needs to be moved out, and there might be something in it for you if you staaaay~"
And then, turning around to face the old man, she said "If it's not an issue, there's a purchase I'd like to make in private. Unless it's too much trouble, of course."
One Brunch Man
Old Maken’s Shop of Mysteries
Magicaloid’s low, impressed whistle rang through the synthesizer filter of her magical girl form's voice like the low buzz of a poorly-maintained ceiling fan, looking over the syringe’s inscription with a barely-concealed sense of excited disbelief. Well, she thought, resisting what she felt was a wholly untoward impulse to heft the object triumphantly above her head like an item in a video game, that sure beats the heck out of the Insect Gender Identifier. She paused, thinking, as the fluid within the syringe formed a single, lazy bubble, swimming up to the top before popping. Now, is the carotid the one in the neck, or the thigh—?
Makoto’s thought process abruptly derailed as she noticed the gun barrel, hanging at approximately eye-level a short distance away. For a moment, she blinked, and the bulging mass of the elephantine cowboy was replaced with the similarly-themed, blitzed-out blonde sociopath that every other Magical Girl in the city talked about with either hushed whispers or eye-rolls. Magicaloid opted for the latter, sheathing the oversized syringe in the pack on her back before being suddenly struck by something else the old man had said, tilting her emotions in a direction opposite from the elephant-man’s. Razzle… She thought, her cheeks heating invisibly as her gaze strayed toward the referred-to Asmodeus, dazzle…?
Magicaloid composed herself as her comrade emerged from the shelves, curiously fast and even more curiously without any company. The robot girl nonetheless nodded thankfully as Kaguya attempted to diffuse the situation, in her own, aristocratic way, and Makoto further attempted to seize the opportunity to get back on track. “He just said it himself, didn’t he?” Makoto asked, voice as controlled and precise as the fingers of an active bomb technician. “‘If you’re not delving’. If you want to know why these Red Ring guys are here, it’s probably for the same reason that you’re here. Or you. Or you. Or any of us.” She said, gesturing toward the other gathered travelers in turn. She then turned to Kaguya, offering the woman a second, slow nod as if to signal that some outline of her plan was being grasped. “But no one’s forcing you to go, if you don’t want to. Stay here, help the princess with her package, and by the time you’re done we’ll have figured out this whole Andy business once and for all.” Magicaloid said, unable to hide a note of smug enthusiasm in her voice—which was promptly extinguished, as she was brought back to her original query. “But, uh, on that note…” Magicaloid trailed off, turning back to Old Maken and reaching up with one hand as if she were waiting to be called on in a classroom, while the other bashfully scratched at her cheek. “…is this an age-restricted establishment, at all?”
Edited by Uncandescent on Nov 26th 2018 at 10:28:57 AM
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~
sword of promised halp
Old Maken's Shop of Mysteries
For a shopkeeper, Old Maken had a rather twisted sense of humor. The gap-toothed leer resurfaced, as if he were tickled by the pistol hanging in Girimehkala's third left hand.
"And here I was, thinking you'd just run off. Forgot the mammoth was here. Tell you what, Giri, you put the gun back where it came from, and I'll sell you six whole packs of hide moisturizer at two coins. That's two for the price of one. Ain't that a deal?"
He tapped his cane on the floor again, and the vaunted packs came circling through the air, dancing a merry jig around the rakhasha's tusks before landing on his head. They were bright pink, lukewarm, very small, and had not for individual sale written on their sides.
"Red Ring do what they want. How is someone like me gonna stop them? Should probably just shoot me. Be quicker, I guess."
Kaguya, meanwhile, put herself between the two and made her request. Old Maken guffawed.
"Now this lady knows the way to an old man's heart," he grinned. "Anything you want, boss, down to my last tooth. As long as you've got the coin, of course."
But before he could lead Kaguya away to the back of the store, Makoto's hand went up. The old man turned around, blinked, then shuffled back, as if finally remembering what he had said in the first place.
"Oh, yes. Mama Jupiter's is down the road. Can't miss it. Real big, bright sign, lots of incense, music. The works. Not sure why a bot like you'd be worried about age. Ah, well. Circuits, I guess."
And with that, he nodded at the party and creaked back to Kaguya.
"Good luck, Andy. You'll need it. Now, young miss, what was it you were wanting?"
The Streets of Dive; In Which The Party Finally Splits
Down the road, as it turned out, was just about far away enough to be annoying. The first indication that the party was nearing anything of note was the sound. As the distance closed, it became apparent that this was meant to be house music of some kind, loud, brash, and rather risque - unfortunately, to most of the party's ears it would sound more like ten chickens being forced into a single trumpet at varying speeds.
The second indication was the smell. A heady mix of cardamom, lipstick, machine-oil and sweat, it wafted through the air like perfume from a fever-dream, as subtle as an old boot and as enticing as brunch. Then again, the rest of Dive smelt mostly like chalk, and the Forever and a Day had a vague underarm scent of cheese and Febreze, so perhaps this would prove a welcome change.
The last and most important indication, of course, was the people. Dive's streets were empty at the best of times, but this was by no means the best of times. Gang members were rampant. Black spacesuits squeaked with menace as the party passed. Sentient vinelings in leather jackets rustled warily, cocking their machetes on their shoulders. Idle hoverbikes leaned on their wheels and hummed, in a flamboyant display of environmental disregard matched only, perhaps, by the quantum tricycles.
And then they were there, at Mama Jupiter's. Or at least, that was what the sign proclaimed. It was a large neon billboard, flickering and sputtering with age, and on it was written, in large orange letters enclosed by a pink arrow:
The sign, attached to a crumbling derelict of a shophouse, pointed to a staircase leading underground, lit by nothing but the sign. Two men stood at either side of the door, burly, mustachioed, and extremely shirtless. Their arms were folded. They raised one eyebrow apiece at the party's arrival, but no more.
"Newcomers?" said the first.
"Weapons at the door," said the second. "Rule number one around here."
"And no minors. Mama's no Rufus."
A large brown bear in a clown outfit ambled its way through the party, squeezed through the men and wiggled down the stairs.
Edited by troydenite on Dec 1st 2018 at 6:21:24 AM
'Being around you guys makes me go "wtf" instead of pondering the ever increasing dread of time' - EchoingSilence, 2023
An Ordinary Oddball
Kayne wrinkled her nose at the...interesting smells emanating from Mama Jupiter's establishment. Moko was still fast asleep on top of her head, and his familiar weight was comforting.
This reminded her of places where street docs and wandering techno-wizards hawked their wares. Usually, they could be found in back alleys near such places. That thought was slightly worrying.
The fact that this place did not allow minors was...surprising. She expected these places to want as much business as possible. Well...
"I cannot go in, as I am a minor. And those who go in have to leave their weapons behind. So if I can't go in, I'll just wait outside!" Kayne punctuated this statement with an unseen (hidden under Moko's brim), almost-savage grin. She'd found a loophole. On the occasion that these bouncers were distracted...she could probably make a move.
She hopped onto a nearby empty crate to wait, and said, "So, how's it going?" to the bouncers.
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
One Brunch Man
Old Maken’s Shop of Mysteries -> Streets of Dive
Magicaloid blinked her pink, cross-irised eyes, glanced over her shoulder to see if anyone else had heard the old man any better than she had, then turned back to the under-toothed man with her raised arm half-wilting in the air. “Was… that a yes? Orrrrr..." She chimed confusedly, her tone and cadence quizzically buzzing in turn with the literal buzz of her voice. But when infini-genrarian moved to address her partner, Magicaloid settled with making a frustrated noise in the back of her throat before using the raised hand to slip forward and attempt to clasp at Kaguya’s sleeve. “Hey,” She said, trying to navigate between the bubbly concern the 22nd century robot was supposed to show and the rational caution she actually wanted to display, “Be careful in there. Keep your drink ready,” She said, glancing meaningfully down at where the flask lay underneath the princess’s palace of clothing, “and we’ll meet back at Rufus’s when this is all over.”
Whatever lingering feelings Makoto had about wanting a nose in her robot form wafted away on the breeze that blew in from the entrance to Mama Jupiter’s, a scent that didn’t make her want to take a whiff as much as take a shower. The resistance at the door was about what she’d been imagining, and her age concerns getting proven correct was frustrating, but one of their own giving into them almost immediately was downright baffling.
Luckily, it wasn’t the one she had her eye on. “Hey,” She would say to Asmodeus with a smile, nodding at the purple-haired succubus and attempting to gesture her off to the side where their conversation would be shielded from the door guards by the ambient noise of hoverbike whirring, “it’s Asmodeus, right? You can have my month of free drinks if you help me out with something.”
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~
Streets of Dive
Asmodeus tilted her head at Makoto, curious what the robotic girl wanted. She followed her into the street.
"You have my interest. What sort of favor do you want from me?"
While the old man turned to speak to her impressionable young ward, Kaguya was instantly up alongside Girimehkala. "Sorry for that. I'll try to make up for it. Be ready to make sure he understands us fully...I'll say "Oh", or something along those lines. Do what you do best."
She patted him on his fully 3D moisturized skin, just in time for Makoto to turn to her.
"Hmmhmmhmm, don't worry, my friend. He should be just as afraid of me as you are of him." She did briefly consider whether that drink is something that'd be better of in her young hands than her own, but she also wondered if that'd be kind of patronizing...
Nah. "I doubt I'll be drinking with him any time soon, but I appreciate your concern, at least. Do your best."
With that, it was time to get this show on the road! Kaguya vs. Old Man Maken, The Battle of the Millenium's Finest Minds! Too bad Giri was the only one around to watch it. Also kind of bad that Kaguya wasn't intending him to watch it, really...he could probably try to be sneaky and listen in, but he was also an elephant. Kind of difficult.
Kaguya walked up to the old man's side, and directed him to turn around. She hardly used force as she laid her hand on his shoulder, but perhaps the suggestion was enough. "It's simple enough, but maybe the matter of its purchasing might be a little...unique. Let's discuss this together."
Maken felt a light push from her, as she tried to walk them further into the maze of scattered goods.
"Once again, I'm sorry about all of that. I only just met them, but they seem so concerned with incidental things like that...right? Not even real transgressions," she quietly said, "but invented ones. The most ephemeral things...fantasies."
She stopped, perhaps just enough to where someone with giant flappy ears could listen, but still be out of sight. She reached for a little trinket, some egg-like gemstone that was on a golden chain, and disinterestedly inspected it at eye-level.
"If I'm going to worry about something, it'd be something more...permanent. Like art, and the memories it creates. Tell me, has anything like that Andradite ever come in through your doors before?"
Breath of the Sun
Mama Jupiter's
"This place smells funny." Wolf remarked, as they reached the next destination. "I don't like it."
"It is... lively." Lamb said, as she walked towards the entrance with her other half, "A place where we are forgotten, for a time."
Wolf merely huffed. Lamb and Wolf stopped before the bouncers, and Lamb removed her bow from her back and handed it to Kayne for safekeeping. "If you will wait outside, then please hold this for me. Take care with it, for it is older than those whose footsteps have long vanished."
So saying the Kindred moved to enter the establishment.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
An Ordinary Oddball
Kayne took the bow gingerly. "I won't let it out of my sight," she promised.
She slung it over her back (to join her rifle) and idly began tinkering with several gears and metal scraps she'd found on the ground near the crates she was sitting on.
Ideas began to circle around in her head as she hopped off the crates and lifted up the lid of the first. What would she find inside...?
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
One Brunch Man
Old Maken’s Shop of Mysteries (Then)
Magicaloid looked to one side, where the pleasant old man had invited them into their shop, offered them free advice, and even now had skincare cream dancing whimsically around him like baby birds from a Disney cartoon. Next to him, was an eight-foot-tall elephant man that she had personally seen eat shot glasses like bar peanuts, not taking into account what he'd done to the actual bar peanuts. “I should be clear, Maken’s… not the one I’m really worried about.” She said, releasing her grip on the princess’s sleeve. “You’ve heard of shotgunning a drink, right? If it comes down to it, just… point it the other way.”
With that, she would turn to leave, a severe inhale-exhale rocking her metallic frame as she wished, not for the first time, that this new dimension she found herself in had a reliable way to communicate across distances, or, failing that, a second, lend-able magical phone. Who knows, she thought, pushing her way through the front door back onto the street, maybe we can find something useful in all this junk, after I get back…
Streets of Dive (Now)
The smile on Magicaloid’s face was only a small fraction of the one in her head, as she beamed at her seemingly willing potential partner-in-crime. “The way I see it,” She said, holding her hands out in front of her as though they could physically encapsulate her vision, “there’s a surefire way that not only gets us into the club, but could get us backstage—into the VIP lounges—and maybe even up to meet this ‘Mama Jupiter’ character herself!” Makoto tried not to lay it on too thick, but couldn’t help but get a little genuinely excited at the prospect that had essentially fallen into her lap. “But it’s not something I can do myself, and I left the only other person I can think of who could back at the shop. So, what you would be doing, in order to help that Andy girl get peace of mind back (and ensure all of our paychecks, said at a murmur) would be to pose as…” Makoto tapped the metal fingertips of either hand together as she searched for a proper euphemism, before giving up on both and resting her fingers together to tilt them forward at the same moment she said “…talent.”
Edited by Uncandescent on Dec 2nd 2018 at 4:03:37 AM
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~
Streets of Dive -> Mama Jupiter's
Asmodeus wiggled her eyebrows to show she understood what Magicaloid was talking about.
"So you want me to use my talents to pose as the 'talent'?" she asked with a smirk. "I like the way you think, girly. Doing business that's a little bit dirty is exactly my kind of thing. I'll go see if I can charm my way in there and get us an inside scoop of the place."
Asmodeus then walked towards Mama Jupiter's with a confident strut. Maybe getting past security would be an issue, but... come on. When they see what she's workin' with, there's no way they'll turn her down.
Forever and a Day
“Oh... no reason,” Kyxe responded, cheeks becoming blue again despite her efforts to suppress it. “Just that your attire is a little... a-anyway.”
She cleared her throat and made a point of standing up, looking to where the other had left and gesturing for the huntswoman to follow.
“Anyhow, shall we? I'd rather we not get left behind,” she asked. Which was half true. Though her reasoning was more to shorten this sudden sense of awkwardness that had befallen her. “And... I'd really rather you not start a fire. There's a lot of flammable items in here,” she added after a pause.
bork