Trog's Tavern: Roman Numerals Are Dumb

[[brackets lover]]

Asami scratches her left cheek. "Well, a lot of people hold a great deal of faith in my kind, and legends are passed down, so there's a rough idea in nearly everyone's mind. They just find it hard to believe i'm something like that cause I don't really act or look like what they had in mind."

She scratches the back of her head, her eyes starting to grow weary as the conversation went on. She then started to slouch, a bit less energy in her voice now. "Does it have to be a specific playground?"

[Morty]

Asami lets Zee field the questions about the Nexus' spatial geography. She seems better equipped for it. Just who is Zee, really? Mai has a feeling she can't put a finger on...

"So they think you're some kind of god?"

[Rebonack]

"Wow that sounds like a lot of responsibility to live up to! Or not live up to," Zee comments, nodding sagely. "You know, when you have people looking up to you like that, it can really help you to be a better person. Be the person your fanclub believes you are! Unless they believe you're horrible then maybe don't be that person."

She taps her chin in deep contemplation, pondering important playground related questions.

"Probably not! What sort of playground are you looking for? The kind with those funny rubberized surfaces? Woodchips? Sand? Silly plastic dinosaurs? One of those spinny mary-go-rounds without any horses for launching children?"

She makes a little swirling motion with one finger to indicate said spinny things.

"If you're just looking for someone to show you around there are definitely people like that! Not me, of course, since I'm just a completely regular human barmaid. But maybe I could bribe Lapis into going with you?"

Zee makes a big show of clearing her throat.

"Lapis! I've got a quest for you!"

...
....
.....

The barmaid wrinkles her nose a bit. "Huh normally I would have expected her to-"

"Hello I made it here I had to finish picking up the sticks from pruning the trees at VIGIL but I did it really fast but also there was snow that had to be in a different place than the walking places so I moved that too but I couldn't find where the shovels were I think maybe the shovel knight took them again and he didn't put the shovel back so I had to just melt it all instead and water takes LOTS of huffing and puffing to melt but now I'm here what's the quest Mother?"

That rambling greeting was proceeded by a brief blur of motion right before a little half-drow girl of about eleven years old is found peeking over the back of the bar counter. She has the black hair of her mother and the bluish skin of her father, decorated by a spattering of bright yellow freckles. She's visibly vibrating with excitement.

"Oh, there's my precious little stone," Zee says brightly, mussing the girl's hair and getting a giggle out of her. "Asami, this is my daughter Lapislazuli. Lapis, this is Asami. She just crashed through the ceiling and wants to play outside, but she isn't sure where to go."

Lapis looks up at the hole in the ceiling, then to the crater in the floor, then to the other child in quick succession. Okay up to date on what's going on!

"I know places to go!" Lapis helpfully declares. "I know all the BEST places I'm good at seeing them!"

[Thursday Violist]

A snake-woman (Her name's June! Or whatever she called herself last time) goes into the tavern. Her long snake-bottom is pretty long, so she goes around the wall, avoiding the mess of tables and chairs so that she doesn't bump into them or get stepped on by someone not paying attention. She's wearing a halter-top to make the whole having-six-arms thing (snakes have six arms, right? so that's why she has six arms? that makes sense, maybe?) work out. Oh, and her red hair's in a ponytail. Quite a bit longer than when she was last in here.

She snakes around the wall of the tavern until she gets to the bar itself and sits on one of the stools. Of course, she coils her tail around the stool so that it's not in the way of anyone's feet.

[[brackets lover]]

"Well, I do get stronger fron worship, and I can hear the prayers of my followers, so I guess its similar?" She shakes her head. "I don't like the term god, though. Its loaded with implications, and there's no clear criteria to identify one by, anyways."

Asami raises an eyebrow at the similarly-aged kid. "Quite the enthusiasm you've got there." She puts her hands in her pockets and idly stares towards the door. "Okay, lead the way, Lapis."

[Zefir]

Mel nods. "Yeah, basically," she says when he describes how he understands Poker. "Well, you can also win by just being really lucky and being hard to read."

She pauses, and thinks.
"Might be why I lost a bunch of money. I'm just a bit too easy to read. Maybe I'd do better if I wore a mask or something. That's why I thought you would be good at it, just because it'll be harder for people to tell what you're thinking."

"Wearing a mask sounds like cheating as the purpose of the game is to controll yourself." he says.
"Did you think about any other way to earn money? I don't want to be offensiv, but your kind is known for their service. Would be more effectiv then to play a game you aren't good at."

"Come to think of it. How can someone earn money here? I'm not experienced in adventuring so what else is possible?"

[Morty]

"Wow that sounds like a lot of responsibility to live up to! Or not live up to," Zee comments, nodding sagely. "You know, when you have people looking up to you like that, it can really help you to be a better person. Be the person your fanclub believes you are! Unless they believe you're horrible then maybe don't be that person."

She taps her chin in deep contemplation, pondering important playground related questions.

"Probably not! What sort of playground are you looking for? The kind with those funny rubberized surfaces? Woodchips? Sand? Silly plastic dinosaurs? One of those spinny mary-go-rounds without any horses for launching children?"

She makes a little swirling motion with one finger to indicate said spinny things.

"If you're just looking for someone to show you around there are definitely people like that! Not me, of course, since I'm just a completely regular human barmaid. But maybe I could bribe Lapis into going with you?"

Zee makes a big show of clearing her throat.

"Lapis! I've got a quest for you!"

...
....
.....

The barmaid wrinkles her nose a bit. "Huh normally I would have expected her to-"

"Hello I made it here I had to finish picking up the sticks from pruning the trees at VIGIL but I did it really fast but also there was snow that had to be in a different place than the walking places so I moved that too but I couldn't find where the shovels were I think maybe the shovel knight took them again and he didn't put the shovel back so I had to just melt it all instead and water takes LOTS of huffing and puffing to melt but now I'm here what's the quest Mother?"

That rambling greeting was proceeded by a brief blur of motion right before a little half-drow girl of about eleven years old is found peeking over the back of the bar counter. She has the black hair of her mother and the bluish skin of her father, decorated by a spattering of bright yellow freckles. She's visibly vibrating with excitement.

"Oh, there's my precious little stone," Zee says brightly, mussing the girl's hair and getting a giggle out of her. "Asami, this is my daughter Lapislazuli. Lapis, this is Asami. She just crashed through the ceiling and wants to play outside, but she isn't sure where to go."

Lapis looks up at the hole in the ceiling, then to the crater in the floor, then to the other child in quick succession. Okay up to date on what's going on!

"I know places to go!" Lapis helpfully declares. "I know all the BEST places I'm good at seeing them!"

"Well, I do get stronger fron worship, and I can hear the prayers of my followers, so I guess its similar?" She shakes her head. "I don't like the term god, though. Its loaded with implications, and there's no clear criteria to identify one by, anyways."

Asami raises an eyebrow at the similarly-aged kid. "Quite the enthusiasm you've got there." She puts her hands in her pockets and idly stares towards the door. "Okay, lead the way, Lapis."

Here's another very weird, if normal-looking, person. Should Mai poke into just who or what Zee and here family are?

"Looks like my job here is done." You didn't really do anything, Mai. "Lapis is on the case."

[Gold]

Gaul grins and nods at the armoured man. "I did help, didn't I? Though, I can't lie, getting that Hopestar guy off your back was all you. Quick thinking like that is an undervalued skill." he says.

He gets up from his chair, seemingly preparing to leave as well. "You do that. I'm gonna head home, catch up on my shows. When you're ready with that gun, you know where to find me."

Gaul then begins to walk towards the exit, but stops almost immediately. "Oh, that reminds me... I never got your name."

[Rebonack]

"Yeah the world is so big and wonderful and great it makes big and wonderful and great feelings!" Lapis replies in a statement of absolutely pure joy for life. She'll reach out to take Asami by the hand with the goal of leading her toward the door. "Come on let's go this way there's so many things to see I'll show you the best playground place it's my biggest favorite!"

Most of Lapis' previous play experience has been at the Frescot and Mithar homes, but now she's branching out and exploring the OTHER interesting locations around the City where children can learn how to be people.

Learning how to be people is a very important lesson, especially for someone like Lapis.

Zee waves at the duo as they depart.

"Well, that was quite the whirlwind!" Zee laughs before fixing her attention on Mai. "And you look like the sort of person who has questions. Deep questions! Deep and questiony questions. The way you tug on Information is really interesting. Like everything that matters about you is being written in disappearing ink. I wonder why that is?"

But then!

Oh hey it's June!

"Hey June! Welcome back to Trog's! Can I get anything for you?" Zee inquires of the snake-tailed woman who showed up at some point after the kid smashed through the roof probably. "How the all of the Junes mystery going? Made any new breakthroughs? I honestly haven't seen many Junes in here since the last time you stopped by."

[ForTheGnomes]

[Necro-Leaf Research]

"You sure have everything and the kitchen sink here." Olvisin grins.
"You'd feel right at home with our alchemists. Where do we start?"

Downstairs, Mai tries not to laugh at Asami's insistence she's not a kid. She's also obviously supernatural in some way, but then her entry through the ceiling already displayed that prominently. She's less phased by the triangle-person than Asami is. She's seen weirder.

"Sounds like you'll fit right in here."

"First I figure out every possible combination of the ingredients. Five ingredients, including the leaves... that checks out to be about _ two ingredient combinations, _ three ingredient combinations, _ four ingredient combinations, and 1 five ingredient combination, all of them including the leaves. So, now we just put them together in a mortar and pestle as the first method of combining." Jerick slid a mortar and pestle over to Olvisin, then started to grab leaves, seeds, branches, sap, and flowers and combined them.

[Thursday Violist]

"Wearing a mask sounds like cheating as the purpose of the game is to controll yourself." he says.
"Did you think about any other way to earn money? I don't want to be offensiv, but your kind is known for their service. Would be more effectiv then to play a game you aren't good at."

"Come to think of it. How can someone earn money here? I'm not experienced in adventuring so what else is possible?"

"It's only cheating if you can't convince everyone else to let you do it," Mel claims. At least it's a better point of view than '...if you get caught'. With her point of view, at least she gets permission.

Mel laughs. "No, it's not that offensive. The money I was betting in the game was money I had earned, anyway, and I just play for fun," she says. "I mostly get my money from busking and open mic nights - a friend recommended I do that - and also I get paid to go on dates and on big events and stuff. Lots of rich people don't want to show up to an event without a companion, after all."

Mel shrugs.

"Best way for you to earn money, though..." She thinks. And thinks. And then says, "Well, it would depend on what you're good at. Find something you're good at, and find something that people want, and the intersection of those two things is how you'll get paid."

But then!

Oh hey it's June!

"Hey June! Welcome back to Trog's! Can I get anything for you?" Zee inquires of the snake-tailed woman who showed up at some point after the kid smashed through the roof probably. "How the all of the Junes mystery going? Made any new breakthroughs? I honestly haven't seen many Junes in here since the last time you stopped by."

"Hi, thanks. Just a llamanade," June says.
She sighs, and lays her head down on the bar.
...
Zee managed to answer her question before she even asked it. Since June came here to see if Zee had any follow-up chance. Yeah, she did mention that she enjoys doing that, didn't she? "No good. No idea what's up, still. Hadn't seen any of them, nobody I talked to had either. At first, I thought Oh, serendipity and fate will just make everything work out, right? Random chance, and all that but then I realized that there's an awful lot of people and Inside just feels infinitely big. Finding one or two people in a city this large is even harder than the whole needle-haystack thing. And there's obviously not some kind of fate or gravity pulling us together."

June sits up, and arches her back, then rolls her shoulders back. "Not to mention, I got sick, too, and apparently the cold's really not fun for me, but I don't think that would've changed anything if I hadn't." June looks at Zee, then bites her own lip. "Hey, you look a little different...did you dye your hair or something? Nah, it's probably just been a while.

She pauses, then remembers what was going on last time: "So that one trapped in the past," June asks Zee. "That you were going to not-time-travel to help out. She ever get, um...un-trapped from the past? Were you able to talk to her afterwards?" Since 'haven't seen many' implies 'has seen some'....
But....sadly, that particular June has been MIA. Not around. And even Venus has been holed up in HALO, afraid to come back to Inside for cult reasons. "Or that one that was running into serious trouble somewhere?" Seraphina. Since June's pretty sure that was mentioned before, too.

In other words, it's perfectly understandable that basically no progress has been made.

[Morty]

"Yeah the world is so big and wonderful and great it makes big and wonderful and great feelings!" Lapis replies in a statement of absolutely pure joy for life. She'll reach out to take Asami by the hand with the goal of leading her toward the door. "Come on let's go this way there's so many things to see I'll show you the best playground place it's my biggest favorite!"

Most of Lapis' previous play experience has been at the Frescot and Mithar homes, but now she's branching out and exploring the OTHER interesting locations around the City where children can learn how to be people.

Learning how to be people is a very important lesson, especially for someone like Lapis.

Zee waves at the duo as they depart.

"Well, that was quite the whirlwind!" Zee laughs before fixing her attention on Mai. "And you look like the sort of person who has questions. Deep questions! Deep and questiony questions. The way you tug on Information is really interesting. Like everything that matters about you is being written in disappearing ink. I wonder why that is?

"Disappearing ink? That's a new one." Mai drinks another glass of wine. "But I'm not surprised you can see that. The short version is, Mai isn't my real name. But if I go around introducing myself with my real one, people will forget me once I'm gone. Mai the itineranr laborer is an identity I wear that they'll actually remember."

[Necro-Leaf Research]

"First I figure out every possible combination of the ingredients. Five ingredients, including the leaves... that checks out to be about _ two ingredient combinations, _ three ingredient combinations, _ four ingredient combinations, and 1 five ingredient combination, all of them including the leaves. So, now we just put them together in a mortar and pestle as the first method of combining." Jerick slid a mortar and pestle over to Olvisin, then started to grab leaves, seeds, branches, sap, and flowers and combined them.

"Alright, I'm following your lead. Plants aren't my specialty." Olvisin starts to grind the ingredients as instructed. "Speaking of, do you come from underground too?"

[Rebonack]

"Nah, disappearing ink is a pretty old trick. Usually in gag pens. You writing something out and then OH NO! The writing vanished! I think ti reacts chemically with the air, but I'm not an inkologist," Zee replies very seriously, nodding sagely. "So people forget you if they meet the 'real' you? Wow, that's got to be a pretty lonely life. Try getting close to someone and let them know who you really are and POW! Instant amnesia. I've got kind of the opposite problem. I open up too much and people can't get me out of their head."

This is, in fact, a very real and literal problem.

"So how come people forget you? Is it some kinda curse or something? It sounds like a not-great life to live."

[Hraithre]

The armored man gives Gaul a long look. "Well, you may have gathered from the conversation that our lot don't like to share our real names. I'd like to say, I've had so many, it would be hard to pick one that would have meaning to you. But, I think it would have more meaning to say mine's not one you want to speak lightly. So, either call me whatever you find fitting. Or..." He lifts up an empty beer bottle and holds it so Gaul can see the label. Was that still lying around or did he pilfer it from a passing waiter? "... call me Colonel Sandels. That's a fine and venerable name, isn't it?"

[Morty]

"Nah, disappearing ink is a pretty old trick. Usually in gag pens. You writing something out and then OH NO! The writing vanished! I think ti reacts chemically with the air, but I'm not an inkologist," Zee replies very seriously, nodding sagely. "So people forget you if they meet the 'real' you? Wow, that's got to be a pretty lonely life. Try getting close to someone and let them know who you really are and POW! Instant amnesia. I've got kind of the opposite problem. I open up too much and people can't get me out of their head."

This is, in fact, a very real and literal problem.

"So how come people forget you? Is it some kinda curse or something? It sounds like a not-great life to live."

Hiep shrugs. She's come to terms with this. It doesn't bother her to talk about it now.

"It's not instant as such. Some people hold out longer than others. But eventually they'll forget me. It is a curse, one that started thousands of years before I was born or chosen."

[Rebonack]

"Curses really are the worst," Zee opines. In Zee's estimation there are many things that are the worst. This is mostly a turn of phrase she's fond of but in the case of curses they might ACTUALLY be the worst. "Nothing that nonsensical should be allowed to shape the world."

Who thought that would be a good idea, anyway?

"I guess that's part of the whole wandering thing then, isn't it? No real reason to stick around in one place. Though I'm willing to bet that there are more people than usual who might be able to remember you around the Nexus on account of how many weirdos we've got."

BUT WAIT OH HEY IT'S JUNE STILL!

"The other June left the bathroom and she seemed okay?" Zee replies. "But she left really quick. I didn't have much of a chance to chat with her. I guess one of the Junes is hanging out at HALO? It's this big undersea base place. I don't really spend much time there but I DID bring them brownies one time."

It's true.

A whole tray of brownies.

They really enjoyed them.

"I guess if you're looking for another June that would be a solid place to check? I should ask Raril if June has been over at the Black Dragon's Den recently on account of working there."

Does she do that still?

Zee has got no idea.

"Yeah I can understand snakes and cold not mixing well. They're pretty notoriously intolerant to the cold. Though if I had to guess I would have guessed you're supposed to be one of those fantasy demon people with the snake tail instead of legs and all the arms. Or, well, not ALL the arms. Six of the arms. Which is still three times the arms that most people have."

[Thursday Violist]

OH HEY it is June still!

"Oh. Huh," she says. "Yeah, I know where HALO is. Never been there, but I've heard of it." Really easy to get to, too. Basically impossible to get lost.

Here's a conundrum, though: should June wait to hear back from the Black Dragon's Den, or just go to HALO as soon as possible? "I guess I'll check out HALO as soon as I've got time off," she decides. Should be pretty soon.

More importantly,
"To be honest, I've never liked the cold. Luckily, for some reason someone put all the holidays into the winter in the Nexus, so that's a good thing, I suppose."

June spins once on the stool, making the coil of lower snake body move around a lot, and looks down at her arms. "But is it weird that I still consider myself human? I mean, snake-human, but still human, I guess. Having ALL the arms took a while to get used to, but they're still pretty handy."
She pauses, to give a beat for the pun to land.
"Being able to play percussion, piano, and other things at the same time is pretty hard but exciting." Almost makes up for being unable to tap a foot. "Don't know anything about 'fantasy demon people' but...I guess they're really not that common? I mean, I haven't seen any around. Maybe if I did, I could ask them some questions about how stuff works."

Wow, June realizes that she's made this conversation really meander all around.
"Well, I suppose that's enough about me. How's it been, taverning and...bar-tendering? I imagine it gets pretty exciting."

[Zefir]

"It's only cheating if you can't convince everyone else to let you do it," Mel claims. At least it's a better point of view than '...if you get caught'. With her point of view, at least she gets permission.

Mel laughs. "No, it's not that offensive. The money I was betting in the game was money I had earned, anyway, and I just play for fun," she says. "I mostly get my money from busking and open mic nights - a friend recommended I do that - and also I get paid to go on dates and on big events and stuff. Lots of rich people don't want to show up to an event without a companion, after all."

Mel shrugs.

"Best way for you to earn money, though..." She thinks. And thinks. And then says, "Well, it would depend on what you're good at. Find something you're good at, and find something that people want, and the intersection of those two things is how you'll get paid."

"Hmm, not really what I expected, but I guess that is a way to use your skills." he doesn't really know what an open mic night is, but he assumes it's kinda like a competition.

"My skills" he says and turns away. One hand rubs at his chin. "Thats a good question. I wasn't really that good of a student. Classes were boring. And I don't wanna fight. I hate hurting people unless they start it. That throws me in a bad role. I have to less life experience to find a way. I only went to the akademi and when it was time for the 'journy' I was sent here. Maybe you know other people I can talk to about this"

[Morty]

"Curses really are the worst," Zee opines. In Zee's estimation there are many things that are the worst. This is mostly a turn of phrase she's fond of but in the case of curses they might ACTUALLY be the worst. "Nothing that nonsensical should be allowed to shape the world."

Who thought that would be a good idea, anyway?

"I guess that's part of the whole wandering thing then, isn't it? No real reason to stick around in one place. Though I'm willing to bet that there are more people than usual who might be able to remember you around the Nexus on account of how many weirdos we've got."

"Maybe. I haven't been here long. We'll see what happens." Mai shrugs again. "I've made my peace with people not being able to really get to know me. It was that or tear my hair out. And it can be useful, too."

[Rebonack]

"Yeah tearing your hair out would be pretty terrible since your hair is nice," Zee replies encouragingly.

Zee that's a figure of speech.

She doesn't mean literally tearing her hair out.

"So what's the plan? Just checking things out? Being lead around by a mysterious destiny known only to mysterious entities?" Zee inquires.

Being lead around by mysterious entities makes it REALLY hard to make long term plans.


BUT LATER WITH JUNE!

"Its definitely really easy to get to HALO. They have those little shuttle things at the docks that will take you down there for free. I'm not sure how anyone would be able to get lost on their way there," Zee muses.

But then!

June says a thing that's interesting!

"Oh, time off? What do you spend most of your day doing?" Zee asks curiously. Lots of people in the Nexus have very poorly defined daily routines. Sometimes they like to talk about them just because then they're defined instead of some nebulous whateverness.

After that comes talk of snakes and cold.

"I can see why snow would be an issue, maybe. They don't really make snow boots for snakes. Snow socks? What would you even call that sort of thing?" she wonders aloud. "But I guess considering yourself human still isn't TOO weird. Some people get modifications and stuff. But they're still human, right? Just paying for a pair of bio-punk cat ears doesn't make you not human anymore."

Or would that make you a catgirl?

No, Zee doesn't think it would. Catgirls are a species or something.

Oh but then questions for Zee!

"Always exciting! A kid fell through the ceiling the other day. I think she might have been a tiny goddess? It has been a REALLY long time since someone arrived by crashing through the ceiling."

If June checks there isn't a hole in the ceiling still. Trog's tends to get fixed up pretty quickly.

[Morty]

"Yeah tearing your hair out would be pretty terrible since your hair is nice," Zee replies encouragingly.

Zee that's a figure of speech.

She doesn't mean literally tearing her hair out.

"So what's the plan? Just checking things out? Being lead around by a mysterious destiny known only to mysterious entities?" Zee inquires.

Being lead around by mysterious entities makes it REALLY hard to make long term plans.

"Mostly wandering around and seeing what I run into that needs me to take care of it." Hiep waves her hand. "Speaking of which, afraid I need to get back on the road, Zee. Thanks for having me. I'm sure I'll be back soon. My real name is Hiep. I hope you don't forget it."

[Hraithre]

Meanwhile, the armored man grabs a notebook and a pen from a passing waiter ("Hey!"), scribbles a message and hand it to them. "Hey, slip this to detective Michalson Barring at first opportunity. Or call them, I guess they have a number. Sorry, no tip. Have a nice day!"

The note reads:

► To Michalson Barring

"Greetings. How's the bodyhunt going? Remember that big guy who cam looking? I have an appointment coming in two weeks that I cannot handle on my own anymore. I'm going to need my assistant back. Short term, probably less than a day. Nothing that's dangeous to her. Meet me at Trog's.

- Colonel Sandels"

After that, he starts trying to take his gauntlets off, his polaxe leaning against his shoulder. After a few minutes of trying, failing and subdued cursing, he looks around. "Hey, anyone want to help me with this thing?"

So, who will help the skull knight who reeks of sewage, smoke, burned rubber and death?

[Thursday Violist]

BUT LATER WITH JUNE!

"Its definitely really easy to get to HALO. They have those little shuttle things at the docks that will take you down there for free. I'm not sure how anyone would be able to get lost on their way there," Zee muses.

But then!

June says a thing that's interesting!

"Oh, time off? What do you spend most of your day doing?" Zee asks curiously. Lots of people in the Nexus have very poorly defined daily routines. Sometimes they like to talk about them just because then they're defined instead of some nebulous whateverness.

After that comes talk of snakes and cold.

"I can see why snow would be an issue, maybe. They don't really make snow boots for snakes. Snow socks? What would you even call that sort of thing?" she wonders aloud. "But I guess considering yourself human still isn't TOO weird. Some people get modifications and stuff. But they're still human, right? Just paying for a pair of bio-punk cat ears doesn't make you not human anymore."

Or would that make you a catgirl?

No, Zee doesn't think it would. Catgirls are a species or something.

Oh but then questions for Zee!

"Always exciting! A kid fell through the ceiling the other day. I think she might have been a tiny goddess? It has been a REALLY long time since someone arrived by crashing through the ceiling."

If June checks there isn't a hole in the ceiling still. Trog's tends to get fixed up pretty quickly.

After the very important and interesting question of what she does during her time off, June answers simply, "Office job. Mostly phone calls and checking stuff." She brushes her hair back with a hand. "Yeah, it's not quite what I wanted to do, but it's not like I can exactly like I can do what I'm good at: Don't know a thing about ion engines, or hypospray, or teleporters, or elf biology, or biocompatibility of mithril, or how ley lines affect cardiopulmonary stuff. I'd have to practically start from scratch, I guess, and I don't know if there's any schools for that."

"Haaaa."
June audibly breathes out.

It is, of course, June's opinion that catgirls are a type of human. Even more so than even elves and such, as evidenced by all the anime girls that can spontaneously develop cat ears and cat eyes on occasion whenever something catches their attention.
"Falling into a vat of chemical soup that's getting blown up by terrorists isn't exactly the same thing as paying for bio-punk cat ears," June says in the tone of voice that suggests she's just saying it because she thinks aloud, and not because she disagrees. "Putting it that way makes me sound more like a superhero villain, I guess."

As it happens, June does check the ceiling for a hole. Which there isn't one, of course. "Ah. Funny story, I arrived in the Nexus by falling through someone's ceiling, too. Ended up going all the way down to the basement, actually, and caused a gas leak."

"Hmm, not really what I expected, but I guess that is a way to use your skills." he doesn't really know what an open mic night is, but he assumes it's kinda like a competition.

"My skills" he says and turns away. One hand rubs at his chin. "Thats a good question. I wasn't really that good of a student. Classes were boring. And I don't wanna fight. I hate hurting people unless they start it. That throws me in a bad role. I have to less life experience to find a way. I only went to the akademi and when it was time for the 'journy' I was sent here. Maybe you know other people I can talk to about this"

"Truth is, I don't know that many people," Mel says. She starts counting them out on her fingers: "I know some musicians. I know a lawyer. I know a hitman. I know a treasure hunter. And I know a shiny person."

Mel pauses. Then, she tells the guy, "Well, I guess if it's just for simple jobs, you could always go to the market street in the morning or evening and ask if they need help carrying stuff around."

[Zefir]

"Shiny person?" the man says and looks up. He does sound rather confused. "What kind of profession is 'shiny'?"

But still he has to address the other part.
"That does sound like a plan, maybe I can help out in a hop or so, some background work were you don't get noticed but still get some copper. Maybe after that I can search for some more informations."

[Rebonack]

"A bunch of extra arms would be really handy for an office job," Zee muses in the form of a one hundred percent intentional pun. "So you can hold a phone and papers and that orange cat that keeps sneaking into the office all at the same time."

Everyone knows about sneaking into office cats.

You let your guard down for one minute and BAM! The cat is laying on top of the copy machine and generating more copies of itself until the whole office is choked with orange cats. Happens all the time.

"Hmm... If you did medical things before I'm not sure how starty from scratch it would have to be. Lots of people are built pretty similarly! Except dwarves have two livers I think?"

Zee glances over at a nearby table of dwarves. One of them raises his mug to her in confirmation.

"Most of the hospitals have specialists who know how to work with particular types of people. That's on the job applications probably? What sorts of folks are you trained to treat eccetera. Also laylines are just like... people drawing lines between old Neolithic sites. You can ALWAYS draw a line between any two objects. That really isn't special. I guess some guy thought maybe they were old trade routes but his model ended up being wrong? Then a buncha folks mystified it because..."

Zee wrinkles her nose here, trying to figure out the 'because' part.

"People like mysteries, I guess? But once people starting dreaming a thing is real hard enough then the faeries get involved and it gets really confusing."

Darn fae, making the world too complicated.

Hmm...

But more important revelations happen!

"That DOES sound like a super villain origin story," Zee admits. "But it doesn't sound like you're doing anything very villainy. Unless it's REALLY nefarious office work that you're up to."

[Gold]

Gaul gives a strange look, glancing at the beer bottle. "Colonel? I'd ask about that, but... that's probably a story for another time," he decides.

With that, the toon finally heads for the doors and leaves the tavern.

[quillpleasant]

The tavern doors are opened by a new visitor! New? Well, new enough. And certainly one who hasn't been here before.

She'd be tall for a human, if she was a human. Some of that height is due to the three foot wide mushroom cap that seems to be growing from her head. It's a dark mottled purple gray, giving way to a lighter gray for the rest of her skin. Its hard to tell where the mushroom gills end and her long, silky gray hair begins. Several smaller mushrooms bud here and there from her skin, and she's wearing a moth eaten brown dress that has seen better days. Aside from her obviously fungal features, she looks like a willowy human, perhaps in her late twenties, although its hard to tell. How long do mushroom people live anyway?

Walking barefoot through the rustic bar, she stares around with wide eyes that look like lavender pools. The bustling inn seems a little overwhelming to her, but that isn't going to stop her from ordering something to drink.

And so she stands at the bar and stares at the menu, squinting suspiciously. Of course she can read. Of course she knows how to go about ordering something.

Maybe if she stares long and hard enough. Or if a good Samaritan happens to intervene.

[Hraithre]

Or, some rat bastard could try to rope her into helping with their own problems.

"You! Fun guy!", comes a shout from mushroom girl's left. "Yes, you. Come and help me with this thing. I can't get this off on my own."

The speaker is a man in battered plate armor. His face is obscured by a helmet in the shape of a human skull. He is leaning on a silver polaxe as he is slowly prying off his metal gauntlets.

He smells awful.

[Ironsmith]

Unfortunately, said rat bastard picked a day when Kyrie was in to draw attention to himself.

Not that the wolf-knight will intervene right away. Zee probably wouldn't be too happy with him if he did; a lot of Trogs' regular customers look to be more than a little shady at first glance, and if he bounced them at the very first sign of trouble, they probably wouldn't have too much clientele left. But this gentleman here, with the skull helmet, the full body armor and the horrid smell?

Oh, yeah. That's suspicious.

...It's a wonder Zee was so kind to him when he first came into the bar, given that. He had two of the three and tried to pay for his first drink with a bag of human hearts. Ugh.

Even so, Kyrie sidles up near the mushroom girl's table, standing nearby with his arms crossed and watching intently, in case this man turned out to be as much trouble as he seemed like he might be. Eventually.

[quillpleasant]

Or, some rat bastard could try to rope her into helping with their own problems.

"You! Fun guy!", comes a shout from mushroom girl's left. "Yes, you. Come and help me with this thing. I can't get this off on my own."

The speaker is a man in battered plate armor. His face is obscured by a helmet in the shape of a human skull. He is leaning on a silver polaxe as he is slowly prying off his metal gauntlets.

He smells awful.

This might seem suspicious, if you had any idea what skulls were, or had a sense of smell. However, this particular mycoid lady sees nothing abnormal here.

Hurrying over, oblivious to other more concerned eyes, she peers down at the gauntlets with a look of horror.

"Oh how horrible! Are they painful? I've never seen such growths!" And she attempts to grab one of them and pull it off with as much strength as her twiggy arms allow.