The Black Dragon's Den

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt looks at Mogzoku with concern. With all the flair the little guy had, he had thought Mog could handle a drink. Now it looks like he might border on alcohol poisoning if he takes another sip.

"Oh, were we supposed to be doing this anonymously?" Reinholdt's famous in the Nexus and Mogzoku tagged the vault with his calling card. And iii already knew who Atya was so it wasn't like they couldn't track her down too.

But then Reinholdt supposes he's never had a heist where he's had to deal with consequences before. Usually whomever he steals from just kind of stops existing after the heist. Wait... has he been condemning those people to an endless void? An empty non-existence just back taking their stuff? It's a sobering thought.

Rein drinks some more to fight that sobriety. "Well then life is about to get exciting for at least one of the Reins somewhere." He shrugs a little.

[[brackets lover]]

Mogzoku blinks slightly, his vision getting blurry. He slumps his head on the table, barely able to keep his eyes open as he passively hears a fragment of what's being said. He gives a weak thumbs up to Atya, responding, "Y-yeah... me too, *hic*, kupo."

He tilts his head at Reinholdt, confusedly wondering aloud, "Reinseses?"

[quillpleasant]

"Not exactly, I just figured that burning their data would make retaliation a lot more difficult. Not to mention that their B32 production will go on as normal." She grimaces. "Caring about consequences sucks." As a bottle of rum is delivered to the table, she quickly pours herself another drink.

"I guess the clone thing does make you a lot safer. But I mean, I'd still prefer the other Reins not to get hurt, even if they're not you." She doesn't bother explaining that situation to Mogzoku- it's Reinholdt's choice what to disclose about the details of his existence.

"Also, it's kind of funny, but I'm actively trying to make myself a lot easier to kill. Which does make me a little worried about, you know, dying after I cure myself. Haven't felt that in a long time." For all the admittedly horrible side effects of B32, it certainly does provide a lot of security.

[Reinholdt]

"I stole Magtok's cloning technology and I'm a clone of a clone of the real Reinholdt." Reinholdt doesn't consider himself real. Huh. That surely isn't guiding reckless and hedonistic behavior in any way.

"Shutting down iii in general seems like a good idea. At least, make it too expensive and dangerous to continue operating in the Nexus." Rein takes a large drink. "You don't have to cure yourself immediately right? Make a cure first. Test it out on any of the other creatures we saw. Wait a while. See any potential side effects you should be concerned about. Burn iii to the ground. Then cure yourself? Seems like a whole process." Or Atya could stab herself with the first thing she thinks might work. That's understandable.

[quillpleasant]

"Hey! You're just as real as any of the Reinholdts," protests Atya immediately, "More real to me." While she understands exactly where he's coming from, that sort of negative self talk will not be tolerated in her presence.

"I don't I could ever shut iii down as a whole, but getting rid of them here... that would be enough for me." She purses her lips, thinking through Reinholdt's suggestions. As much as she doesn't want to delay, he makes some very good points.

"Yeah... yeah okay, you're right. I've waited years, I can wait a bit longer." But waiting sucks so much! Especially when everything continues to get a little blurrier day by day.

"I like the idea of testing it. I'd just have to capture one of 12's little experiments first. Like the rodentipede." She shudders. Mogzoku doesn't know how lucky he was to have missed seeing that thing. "Well, let me know if you hear about any escaped monsters. I imagine there's quick a few running amok after the explosion you rigged."

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt gives Atya a smile to reassure her, saying no more on the matter of self-depreciation.

"Well I can certainly consider hunting one down. Hmm... but..." Reinholdt appears to lose himself in thought for a moment before looking at Atya's eyes. "I don't know how to catch one. You'd have to explain in great detail how one might go about capturing someone like you. Tying you down. Doing... whatever... they want to you."

[quillpleasant]

"Oh that is a dilemma," says Atya, biting her lip in a very serious manner indeed. "If you wanted to capture something like me, for starters, you'd need to be very forceful. These creatures, they can put up a bit of a fight, but that's part of the thrill, isn't it? And they're dangerous, so you'd need to bind all their limbs, to make sure they're totally helpless. Probably with some nice jute rope." She drums her fingers thoughtfully on the table. "They're biters too, so you couldn't go wrong with a muzzle, or depending on the physiology, maybe some sort of gag-"

Daisy gives a low rumble as she reaches for another glass of rum, as if to remind the elf that she is still very much there. Atya blinks innocently. "Well, I guess if you wanted to be more expedient, then some big steel bear traps would probably do the trick instead."

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt grins shamelessly at Daisy. "Jute rope, gag, and bear trap. Pin until totally helpless. Got it. Might have to practice later though. Those creatures are dangerous, like you said. Wouldn't want to go in unprepared." He takes a drink of his rum, continuing to grin like an absolute idiot.

[quillpleasant]

Daisy's eye rolls, an impressive amount of emotion for her. She's long since gotten used to this kind of thing from Atya and her compatriots, but at least Reinholdt seems nicer than most of them have been. It's a low bar, but he clears it!

For her part, Atya can't help but giggle at Rein's expression. "Hm, yes, practicing is a good idea. I mean, as you know, I'm certainly not the kind of person to go into anything without a lot of careful preparation and forethought." That would just be crazy.

"You better be careful, though," she says, raising an eyebrow as she finished off her second rum, "Some of these things are smart. They might turn the tables on you, and then you'd be the one getting tied up."

[Reinholdt]

"Oh man, I hadn't considered the UNO reverse card. It's a legitimate threat." Reinholdt ponders deeply the implications of being pinned down and tied up.

"Well I can safely say there are no bonds I haven't escaped from. I dare so, nothing could possibly tie me down for long." The tone in Reinholdt's voice makes it clear that it's a challenge.

[quillpleasant]

"An escape artist, huh? Well I wouldn't get too cocky. I'm very good at knot tying." A pause. "I mean they are. The creatures are... good at tying knots." It's Atya's turn to grin stupidly as she pours herself another drink.

She gestures thoughtfully with the glass. "You know, I'm really glad I didn't betray you both like I was initially planning too. That would have really sucked." Oh, she said the quiet part out loud. The rum must be getting to her. "Here's to our continued success. And continued lack of backstabbing." Atya takes a long drink, more to hide her embarrassment than anything else.

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt takes another drink, but isn't really keeping up with Atya in terms of volume, or Mogzoku in terms of drunkenness. He does smirk at her though, very interested in finding out just how good she is with knots.

The smirk becomes quizzical and Rein's eyebrows raise. "What would even be the benefit of betrayal in such a situation?" Like he could see himself or Mogzoku betraying the team to maybe keep all the loot to themselves, but what would Atya possibly gain out of such notions?

[quillpleasant]

Atya sighs heavily, thinking for a moment. "Well, it's just what I do. Betray people before they can betray me. The less loose ends, the less likely for something to come back and bite me." She runs a hand through her hair, frowning. "I could have redirected the vault portal to get out, but it only had enough energy for one person to make a jump of that distance, which is why I was trying to get into the power grid. Couldn't bring myself to leave you guys behind."

The elf shrugs morosely. "I mean, it really sucks that I considered it at all. Never claimed to be a good person though." She takes another drink.

Daisy makes a low rumble, out of anger or sympathy it's hard to tell.

[Reinholdt]

"It just creates more loose ends, not less. Trust me." But then Atya probably knows that to some extent by now if it's what she does.

Reinholdt knew those portals were bad news. And Atya's lack of an exit plan at least makes more sense now than 'I didn't have one'. That doesn't make it much better, but he's glad it wasn't pure incompetence.

"Sounds like we need to play Liar's Dice or something to get all your trecherous deception out of your system." Atya makes werewolf parties fun. Well she makes all parties fun, but there's fun and then there's fun.

[quillpleasant]

"Yeah, you're right. Old habits die hard." When almost everyone you've ever known has burnt you, it's hard to put down the flamethrower yourself. Metaphorically.

"Ha, dice, cards, it's all the same- now that you know my secret, you'd always win." She grins, tapping her forehead knowingly. "I always go all in, even when I shouldn't. Especially when I shouldn't. It was a probably a bad idea telling you that this early on, but it does prove my point." Call it bluster, call it reckless- Atya just thinks of it as living her life to the fullest possible extent.

"But yeah, next time I'll have a better escape plan prepared. And betrayal won't even cross my mind, pinky promise." Atya holds up her pinky, more as a gesture of confirmation than actually expecting him to reciprocate. "Assuming there is a next time, but aside from the monsters and being shot, I actually had a lot of fun."

[Artemis]

Raril emerges from his office, stretching and yawning. How long had he been asleep? What had he been dreaming? How did he get here?

The drow blinks and smacks his lips. "Coffee." He decides, and heads towards the bar with that goal in mind.

[Keeper]

There's a unicorn in front of the bar.
That's a little weird, but not super weird for the Nexus. Him apparently trying to telekinetically drink from a coffee cup is probably a little weirder. He looks like a very classical unicorn: a slender, pony-sized creature with a deep blue coat, cloven hooves, a bluish-silver mane, and a slightly curved horn. Of course at the moment, he's also built like a pregnant mare, to the point that anyone looking at him might not realize that he is in fact, not one.

There's a little gold-copper dragon at his table, seemingly encouraging him. He waves as Raril enters the room.

[Artemis]

The drow blinks again. Why was there a unicorn in his bar? No they've lived here for years now, haven't they? But those ponies weren't like this one. And this one was apparently very pregnant. Had a little friend too. Was he still dreaming?

Raril waves at the goblin behind the bar for some coffee. As he waits, he looks at the unicorn. "Good morning." He says a bit thickly. "Miss...?"

[Keeper]

The unicorn waves his horn a little with a distinctly grumpy expression.
"Jace." comes a very distinctly masculine conjured voice from the air.
"Aw, he's just grumpy because he doesn't like how everyone can tell at a glance what a good mom he's gonna be." snickers the little dragon.
"Don't mind him. We're just reminiscing. This is where The Incident happened that ultimately resulted in Khannie so it's important! And it was also ten years ago because gosh we're OLD. Also I'm Zebes." Oh no, not the passage of time!

[Artemis]

Raril's a bit surprised by the masculine voice but doesn't let it show. "Sorry to have misgendered you. I know that feeling." There was many a time in the past the drow had been mistaken for a woman.

"I'm Raril. I own the place." He waves a hand at the bar around them. "Well met."

He gets his coffee and takes in the scent of it before taking his first sip. He closes his eye and savors the taste. "Thanks, Blackeye." He says to the goblin behind the bar. "Just how I like it."

"The incident, hm?" Raril asks Zebes and Jace. "Can't say I've ever called the process of making children something so dramatic." He takes another sip, frowning lost in thought. The drow shudders a bit coming back to himself. "Anything I can do to help?"

[Keeper]

"Sadly, it seems I am destined to go without any children being produced in normal ways." Jace says, followed by a very equine sigh.
"The Incident involved a cosmic entity, a prank, and an elaborate chain of events that resulted in him being a happy father and happily engaged, so really it all worked out." Zebes explains.
"At the moment I'm just trying to settle into the next few months. If I'm lucky, Kit will be born and I'll be back to my new-usual self before the summer."

[Artemis]

"Cosmic entities hm?" Raril echoes. "I know a bit about that. My wife is one. Recently we've been adopting children like her, and even though I wasn't involved in the making, they all somehow look like me. But they're forms are very changeable. I suppose it's a way to endear themselves to me." The drow says, a bit cynically. He sighs and smiles. "I can't help but love them all the same, though."

[Keeper]

"My daughter is, so far, not anything more cosmic than I. For now. She is technically a unicorn and another kind of unicorn and a fox spirit at the same time. So I've been there." Jace waves his horn to generate his voice again.
"I'm hoping that my son is 'only' a unicorn. Which can mean anything, naturally."
Yeah, normal kids are not on the table. "That's good though. It's another point in my favor. Fortuna insists that the pregnancy itself matters, when it clearly doesn't. Your children are your children."

[Artemis]

Raril nods. "Yeah, blood doesn't factor much into it, sometimes. Gods, I know my mother hated me, and my brother." The drow shrugs and takes another sip of coffee. "But that's not unusual where I'm from. Love, as wonderful as it is, is truly rare in the Underdark."

[Keeper]

"Well, for a unicorn like me the blood isn't the issue. I...well, my perceptions color how all this works. So...well, when people start calling you an 'expecting mother to be' for weeks, well. I'm quite masculine most of the time, I assure you.." Jace looks back at himself. Yup. Still looks like a pregnant mare. "Fortuna insisted that going through all of this is important for some reason so she needled me about it on purpose."

[Artemis]

"You thought yourself into that shape?" Raril asks eyes wide. "That's... that's something."

[Keeper]

"Well I mean I normally look like this just...less like a pregnant mare. And it's just...how I expected a pregnant unicorn to be. I guess. Being powered by thought is VERY weird."
Yup. Weird.

[Artemis]

"I'm glad I can't get pregnant." Raril says. "My brother was pregnant once. Has a son now. Saw him a few Spooktobers ago. Hopefully he's not as bad as his father. Hopefully that paladin's set him right."

[Keeper]

”It is apparently something unicorns can do entirely on their own when they’re near mortals that suit them. And they want children. It should come with a manual.”
He snorts grumpily.
”But I’m glad your nephew is doing well.”

[Artemis]

Raril nods, agreeing. The kid didn't seem too bad, at least to him.

"Yeah, life doesn't come with a manual, unfortunately. It would be a lot easier if it did." The drow says. "It sure would help with fatherhood."