For whom the coffee brews
Tyro takes a look around, and it does seem interaction will not be easy, but that's due to him looking like a beast. He takes a seat at a different table, not to cause a fuss, and takes a small sip. "So another tea drinker... and coffee? Interesting."
Stuck being sane.
Athena - Oh tea!
She notes that Shinobu (Not knowing her name) uses poison according to what was said. Hinata's reaction suggests they may be of a similar occupation? She accepts a cup of tea and sips it anyways! Hopefully she won't get poisoned because that could lead to a death in front of many other beings. Who she has no idea if they are used to seeing an immortal dying so casually.
"I have no idea who hired us, but they must have a reason to do so."
So... apparently no one is commenting on her head and hair. Or keeping it to themselves. The frying pan is now not visible, but still in reach next to her other weapon.
I have no idea what to put here, oh well!
The Doctor
The Doctor tipped his hat towards the wait. The poor man looked the worse for wear, though he imagined he was used to it. But perhaps he could be of use...
"How do you do? I'm the Doctor! And you appear to be a worn fixture of this establishment. A bit too worn, perhaps. I was wondering if you could tell me about this place, but I wouldn't want to be inconsiderate. You must be terribly busy..."
Before the Doctor could start pressing, he was approached by the man in gaudy spandex. He knew him well, even if he didn't know him personally. He'd seen the movies, read his comics, played some of his games. If those fictional accounts were anything like the real thing, then he could read mister Lang like a book.
"'Scott'? I'm sure I've heard that name before. But it's a pleasure to meet you! Though I would ask you to refrain from comparing me to a couple of rank amateurs. The last thing I want is for people to think I treat the space-time continuum as a frat party."
It was then that the deranged madwoman went and hurled a chair at his feet. He didn't flinch, barely wincing as it fell to the floor. Whether it was confidence or bravado, none of them could say, but he didn't show a scrap of emotion.
"I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to calm yourself, madam. Lest you become a danger to yourself and others. I'd suggest you do so before the matter is taken out of your hands, and that's the last thing any of us want. Think carefully, won't you?"
He glanced back at the waiter, but his attention was soon stolen by the young ninja introducing herself to the others. He was intrigued, and not only because of her strange eyes. She almost looked blind, but didn't have much difficulty getting around. It would be a matter worth investigating on its own, as was her manner of dress. It was a strange fusion between medieval Japan and the modern-day, though he swore he could have seen it before. If not in person, then in his vast backlog of television and graphic novels.
But from a glance, he could tell she was a perfectly pleasant person to be around, and that was reason enough to greet her.
"Pleased to meet you, Miss Hyuga! It's a rare individual that wishes for little but to help the less fortunate. Unfortunately, it's not a common sentiment. But that makes you all the more remarkable. You may call me the Doctor, though I'm afraid I'm not much for names..."
she/her friend to the hooved
Scott Lang slowly begins to reconsider his life choices
"Yep, real deal, gotcha." Scott quips back amiably with finger-guns cocked. The way the seemingly awkward little man who calls himself "the Doctor" looks at him only confirms what he'd been thinking. What's worse, he gets the nagging feeling that this guy recognizes him, and judging from how coy he's being about it, it wasn't from his time as an Avenger.
Putting a pin in that uncomfortable line of thought, hearing Twilight call for someone, anyone, to help calm down the panicking antiquarian brings another thought to Scott's mind as he makes his way over to her hiding place—behind Shinobu, as it happens. I can shrink and talk to ants... and I'm one of the normal ones?
"Hey, uh, incense lady? You doing alright?" he ventures, making himself look as harmless and small as possible without literally shrinking, helmet off, still keeping a healthy distance as he tries to assist the Doctor in defusing things. "Nobody here wants to... eat you? I guess? We all just kinda ended up here like you did, weird guy with a key, you know how it goes. Didn't catch your name?"
Edited by Chortleous on Apr 1st 2022 at 11:53:21 AM
Maaris
"Hurtful" she says with a hint of sarcasm. Perhaps it would have actually been hurtful if she'd been born in this body but at this point it still didn't feel like her body, it was still more like when you dream you're someone else. Except it actually hurts a little when you get punched in the face. Maaris shrugs, leaving the bottle of alcohol back on the counter where she found it and giving the clearly distressed woman her space. "Couldn't say why a demon is interested in anything, I just came because apparently an owl felt bad I got hit by a bus, kinda hard not to be curious about that" she said in response to the butterfly ninja(?)'s question before sitting down at Tyro's table, nobody said as much but if everyone else was nervous about being near him then that just gave her a bit more breathing room. "I'm Maaris by the way"
Tyro and the Round Table. Where's the Knights?
Tyro extends a clawed hand kindly. "Greetings. My name is Tyro. I am pleased to make your acquaintenance." He smiles brightly, with a big goofy toothed grin.
THE SLORG!
Cecilia in disguise - N!ghts diner - Fashionably late, without the fashion.
The door opened and another arrival entered. A fair skinned blonde woman with blue eyes, however dressed like a medieval peasant with a green dress, with some of the expected dirtiness to match. She was late on account of having been hesitant to actually come, and looked around the room slowly, with a calculating gaze. The most eye-catching person was what seemed to her to be a massive metal golem modeled after a lizardfolk, (Tyro) after that was what looked to be a beastman of some sort with a spirit wolf familiar, (Kindred) a water elemental wearing clothes and somehow not ruining them, (Maaris) some kind of cursed undead from what Cecilia could reckon, (Athena) and what was either another elemental or golem of some sort, Cecilia wasn't sure which. (Espresso) For a moment, Cecilia wasn't able to hide how taken aback she was, even though she had expected some fantastical sights after this place had proven to be different on the inside than it was on the outside. She quickly put on a more curious expression as she took a couple of slow steps forward and looked at some of the other figures in the room.
Three people in the room were dead giveaways as some kind of adventurers; a man in some kind of... Padded leather armor, (Scott) the short lady with a sword at her side, (Shinobu) and what looked to Cecilia like perhaps a nomadic shamanka from the Southern steppes. (Josephine) The others in the room looked fairly mundane to Cecilia for the most part, though that didn't mean she was going to underestimate them, especially since it looked as if there might have just been a scuffle in here not long ago, given the tipped tables and obviously tossed chair on the floor.
Cecilia was on edge and tense, though hid it very well; seventeen decades of practice do that. "... I do not see the man who invited me here," she said after a pause, staying standing in place as she kept looking about at the others there.
Edited by FirockFinion on Apr 2nd 2022 at 12:20:31 PM
You are reading this.
Serial Rider
???-Roland
Roland gave an odd glance towards Maaris before setting his sights toward the waiter. Standing up from his seat and grabbing the bottle offered besides him, he approached the disheveled man.
"I suppose you're a staff in this establishment? Then can you ask your employee who's been giving out these keys our book back? Stealing a book when the Library's still closed is rude you know." He asked, a hint of anger in his voice.
Twilight Sparkle
"I'm not awake enough for this..." Twilight grumbled to herself as the place became more and more crowded, and she finished her cup of coffee before putting the mug down and rubbing her eyes. Once she was finished, she took a seat and proceeded to watch the rest of the group, though anyone who looked at her could tell from her fidgeting that not only was she subsisting on caffeine more than on proper rest, but she was also quite on edge if the way her eyes darted from person to person and to the door was any indication.
Edited by Bored_Man on Apr 2nd 2022 at 2:42:28 PM
Proud member of the AGOG community.
AKA Nixer
Hinata Hyūga — Nights
"A-Arigatō gozaimasu..." Hinata said in surprise as the Doctor greeted her with a compliment, and she lowered her head with something of a bashful grin in response to it. So his title was "The Doctor"? No personal name given... perhaps it was out of need for respect, like with the term "Hokage." She may have been misunderstanding it, but she decided to treat it as such anyway. Though calling him "Doctor" with an honorific attached felt a little strange to her. As such...
"Sumimasen. Would you mind if I called you 'Hakase-san'...?" she requested after a moment's consideration, looking up at the Doctor again as she spoke. "It'd be more comfortable for me to say, if you can accomodate it..."
A few people were still coming in, and understandably taken aback by the sight that greeted them. Focusing on the blonde-haired woman in the green dress, she nodded towards her and smiled gently in an effort to soothe her apparent trepidation.
"We're waiting for him too. I-I'm sure he'll show up soon. Please come in and take a seat, we won't hurt you. That nice woman there has offered us tea..." she pointed out, feeling a little strange for adopting her clan's pleasantries in such a formal manner. Even the more boisterous Hanabi could pull it off with much greater confidence than she could. "I wonder where he is, even so... is he waiting for everyone to be accounted for...?"
If so, is he using his staff to report our attendance? Or can he simply see us without being in the room...? she thought to herself. Perhaps he has an ability similar to the Byakugan...
Edited by Enirboreh on Apr 2nd 2022 at 4:39:04 PM
bork
THE SLORG!
Cecilia in disguise - N!ghts diner - Contextual clues, they are important.
"So I was not the only one invited," Cecilia noted, confident in her appraisal of Hinata so far that the girl was being genuine. Even so, the peasant woman was not sold on the prospect of approaching for tea when there had clearly been some hostile activity in the room not long ago, and that shamanka looked poised to make a desperate fight for her life at any moment.
Cecilia then turned her head and paused, listening to something. "... Teleportation magic?" she muttered to herself, hearing faint sounds of an ocean outside the building. She had been traveling quite far from any coast, lake, or even major river that could be creating those sounds. "I can hear that I am not where I was before. Are we even in Avalon still?" Cecilia asked aloud to nobody in particular, while walking over to see if she could get a look out of one of the windows; preferably one not close to anyone else in the room...
... If she saw a familiar land covered in ash outside that window, then she was going to have a serious problem.
You are reading this.
Stuck being sane.
Athena
A new person came in. Looks like a human female in medieval clothing. Eh. She sips her tea.
"So, I now have even more questions as to how this one being hired all of us. How did they do it?!"
She puts her tea down and looks around- and then sneezes really hard which causes her head to fly off her body. The flames turn into a green blob with a pink eye like thing that's attached to what would be the base of her neck. The green blob moves and looks around while her body just sits there at a table. After looking around the blob retracts to her body and goes back to being pink flames again once it's reattached to her body.
"I don't see anyone who could be the being that hired us."
Edited by sci300768 on Apr 2nd 2022 at 12:24:42 PM
I have no idea what to put here, oh well!
Head on! Head on! Head on!
Tyro blinks, with a slight bit of surprise to that one. "Okay, that I haven't seen before. Though I've seen many who are effectively just a head. But anyway, where do you come from?" He asks Maaris.
Stop Killing My Titles
Shinobu Maintains A Poker Face
People were talking past each other in here with distressing regularity. That, plus the cowardly woman was quickly becoming grating. The shinobi with white eyes seemed pleasant enough; much more low-key than Uzui's wives. Shinobu could appreciate that, especially since the rest of their unlikely group was much more... outgoing.
"I'll be with you shortly, everyone." Nodding hello to all the introductions and deciding to postpone hers for later, she turned to Josephine - and gave her a kick in the shin. Not too hard; just enough to get her to lean down. "Now." Shinobu lowered her voice for the antiquarian to hear, her smile slid off. "You can act with grace and dignity in front of all these predators, so that they know you're not easy pickings - or I can toss you to these wolves instead since you're so loud and annoying to them. What do you say?"
Of course, given how eclectic their collection was, Shinobu doubted any of them wanted to do much of anything with the panicking woman, beyond perhaps getting her to be quiet. That purple woman sounded like she was in pain.
Edited by FergardStratoavis on Apr 2nd 2022 at 11:14:35 AM
grah
she/her friend to the hooved
Scott Lang, resigned to being 'the normal one'
"Dude—whatever your name is—that's not how you calm a person down!" Scott hisses under his breath, raising a hand as if to say 'dial it back'. He then turns back to Josephine, "Uh, yeah, as I was saying, nobody wants to eat you. Or whatever. Some of us are just..."
A glare at Shinobu. "Blunt."
AKA Nixer
Hinata Hyūga — Nights
"There's no wolves in here. Apart from that one," Hinata sighed and gestured towards the Kindred as she chose to interject in the debacle that was Josephine. "While I... agree with her point, this is hyperbole. Nobody here will hurt you. If I can promise you that, will you trust us? From one human to another...?" she asked of Josephine, raising an eyebrow in curiosity as to what response she'd have.
Regardless, she found herself huffing slightly through her nostrils in mild irritation. It was unlike her to be so... forward, and she disliked contributing to such conflicts. Oftentimes a firm word could only fuel a person's paranoia, but in some situations it could help them get a hold of themselves. She prayed that Josephine would listen to reason and find that calmness in her heart. She knew what it was like to feel afraid and weak, surrounded with danger. She could not stand by in good faith without at least trying to alleviate such similar feelings in others.
It was why she was here.
"Gomen nasai. This is all a lot for you to handle... here. A-Ano..." Hinata murmured in a quieter tone of voice, searching through her bag for her book of pressed flowers before drawing it out and holding it towards Josephine for her to take. "W-Would looking through this help calm you down...? Th-They're just flowers that I've grown in my village's private gardens. It's a hobby of mine... y-you can borrow it if you want..."
Edited by Enirboreh on Apr 2nd 2022 at 11:43:06 AM
bork
Polite company
Maaris shook the offered hand, though she became briefly distracted by Athena's display. Suddenly she was a bit glad she didn't have her own body here, it was probably a mess and that can't have been fun to try and bury... For that matter, would anyone even bother with her funeral?
"Oh, uh..." Tyro's question pulled her back from that depressing train of thought back to the present. "Well, I'm from a world called Astratamere I guess, but I hadn't really settled down anywhere yet." She glaces to the window and Cicilia who she thought she heard mention another fantasy-sounding name. "But I don't think we're there anymore. How about you, where are you from?"
I don't have a good caption right now
Tyro keeps up the smile. "That sounds interesting. Well, if you want to talk about it. I came from what's called the Digital World. As the name suggests, it's data-like. But for the most part, it's not unlike any other world. You've got good people, bad people, neutral people, sometimes chaos, harmony, and so on. I guess you could say it's... exciting in some ways. Terrifying in some others." What he fails to mention is how bad his world is now, considering everything that happens, but that might not be a good idea with the situation right now. Less craziness is good.
The Light That Blinds
Espresso
"What the—?!" Athena's display did not cause Espresso to shriek again, but he did blanch and jerk back, eyes wide. "H-how on Earthbread did you do that?!"
Seriously, where does one find these people?
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
Stuck being sane.
Athena
She is surprised at how few reacted to her head display there. Espresso did however. She looks at Espresso and answers his question.
"How do I do that? The answer is a very long story. Also, it's rather useful."
She just... grabs her head and removes it from her body and now a green blob is in her hands. She then throws her head in a seemingly random direction... only to have her head return to her body holding a couple of packets of sugar. The green blob is being held in her left hand as said blob drops the sugar packets onto the table. After this, she effortlessly puts her head back onto her neck position and it's back to pink flames.
And then she adds some sugar to her tea and stirs it in, followed by sipping more tea.
"That's better."
I have no idea what to put here, oh well!
Breath of the Sun
Kindred
The Kindred were not used to talking to anyone other than each other. So naturally, they stayed quiet, observing the menagerie around them. Wolf took in the scents of those present, in case he ever needed to chase them, while Lamb swept her gaze over the motley crew.
Athena detaching her head was hardly of interest. Such things were simple magic tricks, easy even for mortal beings.
Josephine, however, had sparked some interest. Primarily because of the two souls bound into her censer. The device was eerily reminiscent of the Chain Warden's lantern, but Josephine didn't have that same air of cruelty about her. An intriguing being.
Lamb released Ben's hand and moved towards her. Wolf, for his part, floated closer to Shinobu and Hinata.
"No one throws things to me. I chase things, and I always win!" He declared, seemingly offended by the suggestion that he'd need help to hurt someone.
"Wolf chases those who do not willingly go." Lamb explained. She held her hands to her side, showing Josephine she was not a threat. A gesture accenuated by the fact that Lamb was actually quite small - easily the shortest person in the room. "But it is not your End, so Wolf will not hurt you. You do not need to be afraid of us."
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
Doctor
"Of course! I've always appreciated the subtle nuances of honorifics. And I certainly wouldn't mind a spot of tea..."
He had hoped to get himself further into Miss Hinata's good graces. Perhaps ask about her condition and manner of dress once the opportunity presented itself. But that would have to wait. The other ninja was busy indulging herself in a spot of violence, which was always the last refuge of the incompetent. He wondered what that said about some of his previous incarnations, but he preferred to solve his problems through other means.
"I'd suggest you lower the volume. She's already been given fair warning. If you want to her act with grace and dignity, I'd suggest you start practising what you preach, lest you set the wrong example..."
He leaned in, lowering his voice in much the same way as Shinobu had, but even softer than she had made it.
"..and of course, kicking the hornet's nest is never a good idea. Particularly when it's literally being kicked. Or would you prefer to make a bad situation worse?"
Philip
Madness and Pain
"We must go now, this damn hell I must-" She was speaking until Shinobu kicks her right in the shin making her fall to the ground in pain some small tears fell down her eyes, she looks up and hears what Shinobu says, this girl, she is no child, in fear she, nods to what Shinobu says before slowly getting up "For all, we know your mind couldn't be your mind," she says to Scott leaving Shinobu not wanting to be attacked by her again, she then stops seeing another human has come in with some book to calm her down, she grabs the book, from Hinata and leaves just not wanting to speak to her.
She then begins to drag all of the free tables and chairs pushing, all of them into one side of the wall making it into a small base for her and herself only she crawls in the wooden base wanting to wait out this whole thing until one of the masked horrors came to her.
She then grabs her blade and points at her but still wanting to hear out what she wants to say to her, she looks at Lamb's hand and said, "I don't trust anyone in this room, and even with you can speak our language, I trust you inhuman things even less from my times in Hamlet" she says ducking down into the tables and chairs leaving herself all alone with just her censer until the blue fog came out of the censer, she knows what is going to- "Anyone help!" a woman's voice is heard yelling for help, sounding distressed, before the soul in the censer can speak more She grabs it and tosses it into her rucksack and closing it she then grabs her coving and begins to cover her sack showing her long black hair she then puts the mess away and turns back to the Lamb "You didn't see or hear anything at all..." she then goes back into the shadows.
Edited by This on Apr 3rd 2022 at 2:14:16 AM
I can do it. For the sake of my master and seonbae…
Just outside the cafe, someone was listening. He knelt just outside the door, with his ear pressed against the wood. He had listened intently to everything said within after Cecilia's entrance, but was not so distracted that he didn't hear the footfalls of the man coming up to stand over him
"Master Bruce, are you quite finished?" said a withering voice in a clipped English accent. "In polite society, we step in to the building and introduce ourselves."
"I need to know what we're getting into, Alfred," 'Master Bruce' replied. "I knew whatever this is would be far beyond our usual scope, but this...I'm hearing mentions of other realities. Astratamere, the Digital World, Earthbread...You don't hear about places like that in 'polite society'."
"Look on the bright side, sir," said Alfred as the other man rose to his feet. "If they're from so far afield even you haven't heard of them, there's no reason you can't be yourself at last."
"That's a risk I can't afford to take."
"If you say so, sir..."
Bruce picked up a certain cowl from the ground and held it at chest height. "There's more than enough people in this world that know both my names. The only one these people need to know, for now...is the name that struck fear in the hearts of criminals for thirteen years."
"A good thing, then, that you kept a spare cowl. Wouldn't want to waste a symbolic gesture on a police headquarters rooftop, would we?"
The man called Bruce slipped the cowl on over his head, and with tiny little whirs, metal plates slid into place, securing it fast. "This is it, Alfred. As soon as we step through that door, we'll know how many people know Bruce Wayne. In the best-case scenario...this could be a new beginning, for both of us."
"Then to coin a phrase, sir... Once more unto the breach."
Nights- Interior
The first thing that anyone would hear would be the sound of the door softly closing. The first man was already standing inside, a few feet away from the door, as though he'd just popped out of the ground. From his head to his boots he was dressed in shiny black and grey armour, looking like something between a medieval knight and a black-ops combat specialist. But the eye would be quickly drawn to the helmet- a black mask that covered all but the mouth and chin, with blue eyes peeking through the front, and two long points like bat ears jutting up at either side of the head. A long black cape trailed along his shoulders and down to the ground. A belt ringed his hips made entirely from dark yellow metal pockets and pouches. On his chest, across the metal plates that separated and closed with every flex, was the insignia of a black bat. The man stood there, for now, looking slowly about, grimly surveying the room and its inhabitants.
Behind him was the man who'd actually closed the door when he entered. This was a slim gentleman, perhaps in his mid-sixties, dressed in a formal butler's suit, complete with a black bow tie. His greyish brown hair was diminishing around the top of his head, hardly hidden beneath a combover, and his lightly wrinkled face was marked by a thin moustache and a distinguished pair of spectacles. As he went to stand by the bat-suited man, he looked about the room himself and gave a bemused smile. "Well now," Alfred exclaimed, "Quite the...eclectic gathering, I should say. I do hope we haven't arrived late for anything."
Hinata Hyūga — Nights
"Hai. I saw it was clean while you were still outside of the room..." Hinata said softly in response to Shinobu, blinking and activating her Byakugan again by the time she opened her eyes. "I wanted to see how you'd react. You're very skilled... but I don't see any hitai-ate on you. Are you a shinobi too...? Or something else...? A-Ah, ano, forgive my questioning. I-I'm only curious..."
She blushed slightly, looking down at her drink again as she sipped from it and considered the beverage for a few moments. So this woman was the type who'd know how to poison someone if she was willing. She made a mental note to always check what Shinobu gave to her before accepting it. Just in case.
"I'm sure it'll be explained to us once our hirer comes here..." Hinata expressed to the others as she set her empty teacup down, placing it back onto the tray that Shinobu had offered it from and bowing slightly to the other woman in gratitude and respect. Turning now towards the others in the room, she got up out of her seat and brushed down her dress before smiling brightly at everyone and bowing once more in greeting. "I-I'm personally glad to meet you all. Hajimemashite...! My name is Hinata Hyūga... I'm here because I was told I could be a help to others..."
bork