The professor looks up for a moment at the half-familiar word. "Lashunta... where have I heard that before?"
"Ah yes... the lizard-riding warrior women from elven legend, said to ride giant lizards and have a distaste for clothing... I suppose I can see how the subject would be breeched in a place like this, although I must say it's a rather scholarly sort of fantasy to indulge in a place like this. In any case, I'm honestly less concerned with the price of the rooms and more with the quality of the locks...
Addressing Grey, "Tell me young man, does trouble often break out in this establishment?"
Celes was there that night, working on a set of men who were celebrating another one of their companion's coming of age by bringing him here. To this brothel. It was at the bar she was leaning against, drink in hand as she conversed with the local drunken rabble. Her pale skin and blue hair gleaming behind an orange Entertainer's dress. She was wearing her jewelry that night. The man celebrating was her target, it was there she was trying to get him to buy her more drinks, or money, with a 'promise' of something in return later.
Though in between laughs, she was taking her time to stare at all the people she had never seen before. Specifically, Lisa, Vanna, and Victor, a keen interest in their conversation what bits and pieces she can pick up when walking back and forth through the bar and brothel.
Also, a child busing tables. Celes is sure that isn't legal in any shape or form.
"It is not a legend, we are real" Elai turns on the professor indignantly
Lisa turns to Quinto, surprised at the amount of gear he carries.
"Ah, a fellow scholar, I see! But as you can see, Lashunta are indeed real. I wouldn't exactly say we have a distaste for clothing, though!" As she speaks, Lisa shows off her antennae and wiggles them. "What brings you to this establishment, anyhow?"
"Little boy, shouldn't you be out playing rather than busing tables?"
To call the Round Buckle’s a dive was to play it up, make it out to be more than what it was. Let’s face it; the place was a pit, a dump, a cesspool of human waste. I know there are worse places, but in my business you don’t always want to start at the bottom.
I took out my pad and pencil and jotted down a few notes about the things I’d seen and heard while I was here, the names of the dames, and other observations, while I waited for the barman to load up another round on a flat tray. That’s when I noticed Tatu had left. Didn’t even say a word, that hurt my feelings so I asked the barman if Tatu had said anything, and the guy looks right at me and says, “What are you talking about, that man was never here.”
Now I like to drink, pretty sure them elven dames can drink me under the table and I ain’t about to find out how that would turn out, but I wasn’t drunk, and I know he was here, but this slob behind the bar tells me otherwise. Yeah, that pot was cooking alright.
The place was starting to fill up and the barkeep was slow in filling my order. The leggy blond must have gotten impatient and approached the bar. Maybe she forgot I was running drinks for her, maybe she was just looking to get away from those dizzy dames yammering in elven.
I was about to say something to Vanna, the blond dame approaching the bar, when a pair of odd balls walked in the place and I knew, yeah I knew for sure and certain something was cooking and it was gonna boil over any minute.
The two that came in were a HalfDoll, one of the little folk, and she had a smile on her that made my heart thump right up to my throat, a real looker, sweet and bubbling all over the place like a dime store soda. Just the way I like ‘em. And right behind her came a fella I should have recognized. He had one of those faces. I’d seen him before but couldn’t place him. He wore spectacles, and a clean suit, and he was carrying a bag on his back like he was a traveling salesmen, but something about him told me he was no easy mark. Out of place in a joint like this, he stood out like a weed, but he threw off warning signals I wasn’t missing.
For too long I’d ignored the bright eyed blond next to me, Vanna, and so I turned to her and said,
”If I came on strong and put you on your ear let me say I’m sorry. It happens to be that that’s just the kind of guy I am, and it takes me a while to shake the nerves off. Let me ask you a question, doll face. Them dames that was talking in elvish, did you follow any of that? I’m beginning to get a hunch that something here ain’t right.”
I give Vanna a cold hard stare, but the dame is looking over my shoulder, so I turn and take in the scene.
Ah, cut a guy a bit of slack, I think to myself as I see yet another dame, an elegant looking gal with class written on her, like Vanna. She was decked out in an orange dress and wearing the kind of jewelry a doll doesn’t wear in a place like this unless she’s got a five inch dagger hidden somewhere and she’s ready and willing to put it to use.
What’s going on, Vic, I ask myself. I hadn’t seen so many good looking broads in one place since that troubadour came into town and sang on the big stage uptown. Vanna may have noticed this dame in the orange dress as well, or maybe she was looking across the room at the old juke box in the corner, I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I’d ask the blonde if she recognized anyone else here.
“So, Vanna, smokey eyes, tell me something. Anybody here seem out of place to you?”
As I asked I glanced back at the dame in the orange dress and that’s when I saw her giving me the stink eye.
At the studious fellow's query, the guttersnipe looks up. "'Lot depends on what you call 'trouble'." Waggling his eyebrows in a manner far too suggestive for one so young & small, he continues. "I know what you're thinking, 'This kid doesn't know from trouble', but believe you me, I do. You don't survive sl-
Er... on the streets of Che-
er, without knowing when to find a nice quiet niche to hide for a while when the time comes."
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That was easier than Celes thought it would be, being at the bar made it easy for murky white eyes to catch glimpse of Victor taking a glance over. Target acquired. Celes would excuse herself then and begin the short walk over to Him and Vanna.
"Looking for trouble? Or to buy me a drink?"
@Victor
"You mean the girl in the orange dress there, blue hair? Vanna does a quick head nod in the girls direction."She's dressed up, looking nice, but it's only skin deep. If that is a serious question then... " Does a sweep of the room. "There's a boring looking guy over there who I'm sure is just waiting for the opportunity to give a lecture. That small boy who is speaking with him. And... our table of three. Sorry, you fit right in here at the brothel. Oh, and I speak elven, no idea what those two are yammering in."
I head back to the two Lashunta and take my seat.
When Vanna tells me that she speaks elven but doesn’t understand what those other dames are talking about, I get a knot in my gut that tells me I’m being played for a sucker.
I watch the cool blond with the fire in her eyes stroll back to the table, and I’m not sure, for the first time in my life, what I’m going to do next. Then I hear a sultry voice behind me say.
"Looking for trouble? Or to buy me a drink?"
I turn around and summon every bit of strength I got to keep my jaw from hitting the floor.
This dame has it all, exotic, cool, lean like a cat that hasn’t been eating enough mice, and she’s looking at me like I’m Mickey.
My knees feel like they have turned into mud and I’m sweating like it’s my first time with a dame.
I don’t like it, but she’s got something and she throws it around like she’s nobody’s sister. Then it dawns on me. Baby, I’ve seen this broad before, and I know now that I don’t want anything to do with her. She’s connected, and I don’t mean in a good way.
When I try to talk, in my head the words are measured and cold, but I open my mouth and stammer like an idiot.
“Su… sure, a drink, uh, yeah, buy you , uh, uh, a drink, su…sure.”
If I can gain my composure…
“Say, you look an awful lot like a dame I know who spends most of her time at Stumpy’s or the Screaming Harpy. A gal I know who is connected to a guy I’d rather not have a problem with. Sister, I’ll buy you that drink, but let’s cut the chit chat short, what’s your game, Trouble? I'd be a moron to give you my name, and you probably don't want to tell me yours, but I'm dragging a chain around tonight that keeps getting heavier. The name's Vic, Victor Jankowki, privite eye.'
Celes's hands tap against the bartop as she give Victor the up and down, her face giving off a thoughtful, albeit sultry look as she looked him back in the eyes.
"That will do nicely, thank you," She manages before turning back to the bar and waiting for her drink. Which wouldn't come right away as Victor began spouting off more at her. She kept her cool, her ominous aura as she turned back to him with a light throaty laugh. "Celes. Pleasure to be in your company," she offered back before stretching her neck and back. "Oh both sound familiar to me. I may have been there, maybe not. But that's not what's important I think sweet heart. I am here, now, with you... Now, what do you say about that drink then we can talk about where we go from there?"
nothing special, just another lady for Victor to flirt with.
Lisa walks over casually to the jukebox and takes a closer look at the strange device on it.
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The blinks appear to by cycling faster and faster as you watch. This particular psionic transmitter appears to be counting down to something.
The professor takes a closer look at the two Lashunta, addressing his glasses. "Well, as I live and breathe! Come now Figit, have a look. It seems we are indeed in the presence of a most rare sight!" He stands up to more closely examine the antennae. "Perhaps you could clear up what purpose those serve for me? The texts on the subject consider them purely decorative..."
Suddenly remembering he was asked a queston, "But yes, sorry, how rude of me. I had just been hoping to spend this trip observing the movements of the stars from the top of that broken bridge outside, but you my dear are far more intriguing... tell me, how did there pair of you come to arrive here, exactly? Have the elves been reopening their portals to your homeland, or have your people done the same on that end? And I don't suppose you brought along one of your riding lizards? Well, I'd imagine I'd have seen it out front."
"I don't know what their purpose is, I'm not a biologist. I think they have something to do with our telepathic abilities, and they're very sensitive. Now excuse me I'm going to assist my kin over there."
I order two classes of scotch, and then say,
“Where we go from there, toots, is I go back to those dames in the corner, and try to make some sense out of…wait, where’d that other dame go to. There she is. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll take my drink, leave you with yours, and keep myself away from any unnecessary pointed objects aiming for my kidneys, good night, Miss Celes.”
I walk to where Miss Lisa is examining the Jukebox, and offer my assistance, maybe help her see where the thing is actually connected
Celes gladly accepts the drink, having thought swooned the man all the same, though his immediate disinterest in her makes her a little more, frustrated. "Don't be like that, you haven't properly 'interrogated' me!"
Not one to take no for an answer, Celes puts her drink back down on the bar and follows after Victor, who for some reason or another is interested in some jukebox. Though engineering isn't her strong suit. She's all the same trying to see what the fuss is about.
"Is there any real reason why we're standing around gawking at some magic music device? There is so much fun to be had if you just let it be,"
Lisa notices Celes and realizes she could be useful.
"Ah, you there! can you help us figure out this device?"
"Now just what is this thing everyone's crowding around for a look at?"
"Now that is a rather complex little device. Yours, I assume? And should we perhaps be a tad worried by its current behavior? Remove it from the premises, perhaps?"
"What is that thing your messing with dol...um, Miss Lisa?"
Not looking up from the device, Lisa replies, "It's a psionic device of some sort. I don't know what it will do, but the energy cycles are speeding up as we speak, so I'm trying to deactivate it."
Vanna was amused at the sight of so many people gathered around the machine, as she sat and sipped her tea. But as more and more people gathered, her curiosity began to rise. "Might as well." She walks up to the group to peak over their shoulders at this blinking light. It's blinking faster. Is it broken?
"No, it's counting down to something. We have to deactivate it so that nothing bad happens."
what if I look at it a different way...?
"I don't get it you dizzy dame, what do you mean counting down? Like some kind of backward clock that is ticking...so...that. Jumping Jimminies, look we better get out of here. What's gonna happen if you can't make it stop?"
Well at least it's stoped blinking. That's a good thing, right, doll face?"
"It should be."
"AH HA! I knew there was life on other planets! Wow, seeing not one but two living, breathing Lashunta is astonishing." Figit starts to bounce on the balls of her feet in excitement. Finally, after years of research and speculation, proof that life on other planets exist right before her eyes! And now they want to share their technology with us? Can this day get any better? Figit leans in to see the device, all thoughts of a drink forgotten.
Using my Lore Master ability to take a 20 on this Knowledge (Engineering) check so 20+12=32
Lisa spies the hyperactive little gnome trying to get at the device and stands in front of it in some instinctive attempt to protect it.
"And just who are you, miss?"
Figit grabs her hand and starts shaking it. "Figit Pattal, miss. Gods be praised, I wasn't sure if I could prove that extra-terrestrials exist with-in my lifetime and now I'm holding the hand of one! Oh, I have so many questions like how you got here, is travel to to your homeworld possible, is trade possible between our two worlds, have you been to other worlds, but the most pressing matters are what is your name what is that beeping device in your hand?" After this excited rant, Figit needs a moment to catch her breath.
edit when the halfdoll woman is finished with Miss Lisa, I give her a smile, and introduce myself.
"Well hello short and dreamy. I saw you come in. The name is Victor, Victor Jankowski. Did you say something about 'other planets'? I didn't hear everything you said. Let me introduce you to some folks I know. This here is Miss Lisa, a regular book on two legs, smart as they come. We go back a ways, haven't always been the best of friends, but she's a good egg. Now these other's here are Vanna, Celes, and uh, uh. I'm sorry toot's," I say to the strange alien girl who made friends with Miss Lisa, "Seems I didn't get your name the first time around."
Then I realize the spectacled man is also standing close by
"Say, short and dreamy, didn't you come in with this fella?"
Lisa laughs and shakes Figit's hand just as vigorously. "Sorry to disappoint you, miss, but I have no memory of my home planet. My name, as given to me when I awoke on this planet, is Lisa. This thing is a psionic device of some sort."
Figit pauses for a second, readjusting to the real world after meeting a being that validated years of hard research. She then took another second to remember Mother's last words of advice given as Fijit left home, "Human men will hit on anything with a pulse. Careful around them!" Keeping this in mind, Figit lets go of the alien woman's hand and turns to Victor. "Hello, tall man. Nice to meet you. It seems that you are in the company of extra-terrestrials. And the fellow I am traveling with is the esteemed Professor Quinto Addermire, one of the foremost experts on foreign celestial bodies on this planet."
"An expert on foreign bodies, you say?"
I turn to the professor and offer my hand
"Seems we have something in common Professor."
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Figit facepalms, realizing yet again how true her mother's last words were.
Figit lets lose an small "eepp!". What in the hells was that? Wait...that thought sounded like it came from Lisa's throat, but it was in her mind! Turning towards Lisa, Figit asks "Can...Can you talk to people with your mind?"
"Explains the staring contest earlier."
Professor Addermire begrudgingly shakes Victors hand with a disdainful "Yes, I'm sure you are." Looking back at the odd device holding everyone's attention, "So seeing as you apparently are not the owners of this odd little device, I do indeed have to wonder just how it came to be here. I don't suppose our barkeep here would happen to have seen who it was that happened to leave it behind, would you?"
"No, how could you possibly think that?" Lisa winks at Figit.
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what were the results of my Kno(psionics) check?
Bartender: Aye, young women left it a few hours ago. Said her name was Iridia. I meant to pick it up and throw it in lost and found. But it was too strange for me to touch. Downright wierd little thing isn't it?
"Well I think we can all take a deep breath and relax. Whatever it was, there's no danger now."
Just role playing my -1 initiative, don't judge me!