Demon Hunters Welcome
Log Info
- Title: Demon Hunters Welcome
- Emitter: Cryosanthia
- Characters: Sabina, Cryosanthia, Jinks
- Place: A03: The TarRaCe
- Time: Monday, October 25, 2021, 2:55 PM
- Summary: The TarRaCe is closed. Inside, Sabina is wearing carrots as horns and has fashioned cloth wings. A sign on the door states: Demon Hunters Welcome. She is attacked by one! Lily, dressed in paper mache' armor 'slays' her. Cryo asks what has been going on, she's been asleep for days, though the paper has bad portents in it. Jinks arrives and invites himself in, also converging on Sabina. The Tarienite explains how she revealed her pact to the Temples, and how that made it necessary for her to chase Rupi off, and with the recent proclamation, makes her wanted in Alexandria as their pact isn't broken. She promptly falls asleep, and Jinks and Cryo get her upstairs. They're unsure, neither having any love for demons or much sympathy to the situation but also feeling this was not the best possible result. They go shopping.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-<* The TarRaCe *>--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
Inside, this two-story structure has been almost completely opened up. Generous windows on both stories allow daytime sunlight and cooling night breezes to flow in as needed, while the brick walls have been whitewashed - contrasting with the dark-stained beams and supports, and the rich polish on the wooden floor. A broad strip of stone runs from the entrance to a framed doorway set into the opposite wall, with a sign above the lintel declaring that the baths are to be found that way.
The ground floor is sprinkled with tables and chairs of assorted sizes, offering welcome to guests both large and small. One whole corner of the building - into which guests are not permitted entry - has been given over to the kitchen, which serves as the domain of the famed monster chef Ligum Serforus. Mundane meals are available, but the chef delights in offering up obscure dishes made from the freshest of monster ingredients.
Opposite the kitchen a small bar runs in front of an array of shelves, displaying a broad selection of beverages (most of them alcoholic). The bar-top has been fashioned from what looks to have been old pieces of armor, fused and welded together before being polished to provide a near-smooth finish. Set above it, three human-sized statues have been built into an alcove in the wall: Tarien, Rada and Ceinara jointly keep benevolent watch over the room and its occupants.
To the right of the entrance, a small stage offers a platform for a handful of performers at a time. To the left of the door, a spiral staircase of wrought iron winds its way up to a balcony dining area, that is chiefly reserved for special events and parties.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing, in Order -=-=-=-=-=-=-= Sabina 5'4" 130 Lb Human Female Tsuran woman of dark hair and green eyes Cryosanthia 6'9" 291 Lb Sith-Makar Female A dashingly tall, elegant white-scaled lizard woman. Jinks 3'4" 39 Lb Gnome Male A gnomish fellow in fancy garb and jewelry. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= NPCs of Note -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Little Fang, 'Lily' Kobold Female A pinkscale youngling in a demon hunter's costume. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
Rumors go flying on wings in the Colosseum District as the TarRaCe closes it's doors suddenly.
- "I heard the temples was angry cause peoples was worship'n there."
- "I heard there was a demon cult inside. Heard about all them Inquisitors hanging about, right?"
- "I heard they just have to do cleaning cause of all the people recently."
Whatever the case may be the doors are closed but a large sign stands just outside stating...
- Temporarily closed. Sorry for any inconvenience. Demon hunters free to enter despite being closed.
Inside, the proprietor has threatened to be sitting there, with a glass of wine, waiting in paper-mache horns and wings.
And indeed she is. Close to the afore mentioned outfit but slightly different. The wings she has are made of fabric using her sleeves. They flop under their own weight and are a vibrant blue-green. The 'horns' on her head are nothing but two similarly curved carrots tied together with twine and wrapped about her head. One carrot-horn dangles down at a forty-five degree angle.
Not that Bina seems to care, deep into her cups as she is. Three bottles sit in front of her, a small crate resting on the floor beside her. The Tarrace is empty. No sounds from the kitchen. The chairs upside down on the tables.
'Build it and they will come', the saying goes. Waiting for the Mountain to come to Mohammad, is also a strategy. Waiting. Or drinking.
The silence is broken by a sudden scream.
"Yaaaaaaaaa!" A little carnation-scaled demon hunter in a paper mache' helmet with a wooden sword charges across the restaurant floor. Tiny toe-claws a-tapping.
"Guardsss!" She brings up the blade, "Turnsss! Parreees! Dodge!" The kobold youngling jumps from side to side, "Yaaaa! Thrusss! Sssproingss!" Little Fang stabs at Sabina, missing by miles.
Feet. Kobold body lengths.
Sure, the sign says "Closed for business" but maybe the gnome fancies himself a demon hunter of sorts. Jinks lets himself in out of the rain with a heavy sigh and immediately leans his back against the door. After a heartbeat of soaking in the hearthglow his eyes open and he leans away from the door, shifting the strap of his heavy pack and having a look around. He blinks, frowns, and then narrows his eyes when he notices the common room is unusually empty. "What in the hells...?"
Bina, maskless, watches Lily jump and spin about with a grin. She raises her glass up in salute. "Oh-ho! The demon is slain! THe great huntress Lily has ended another evil in the name of good! Huzzah!" And then there's a Jinks and she giggles. "No no.. not hells. This is the Tarrace. There are no demons here anymore.. well.. I mean Iguess there's me." She reaches up and waggles a carrot. "See? DEEEEMOOOON! FEARME! Except I'm dead... Lily got me." She reaches down and pulls out another bottle of wine and carelessly whips it towards Jinks. "Catch!"
"Yaaaaaaay! Prissoner now with magic cuffss! Arrcanissst Dungeeonss!" Lily squeals happily tapping at Sabina with her sword, then leaping into her lap. Up close she rawwrrrrs! Such a tiny yet fearsome maw.
Heavier footsteps follow, the tall white-scaled sith'makar Ssassa. Cryosanthia is rubbing at a horn ridge. She approaches the 'demon'. "How long was I sleeping? Are you setting up for a party? Where is everyone? I swear sometimes the dragon hibernation comes back."
A brief nod of her head, "Hello Jinks." She's wearing everything, her full adventuring gear.
Jinks' pack slides off his shoulder and hits the ground with a thump, freeing both hands so he can snatch the bottle from the air. It's not the most effortless catch but it's a catch. He bends and snatches up his bag long enough to toss it away from the door and pads on over. His face his ruddy and windburnt, lips dry and cracked. He's in traveling clothes; a longcoat, highboots, oddly-practical (for the gnome) gloves.
"You look well for a dead person. Did Cesran steal a kiss from you, too?" He licks his lips and grins, a wince tugging at the corner of his eye. Then he sets about opening the tossed bottle. Better that than playing dentist for generous horses.
Bina snorts at Jink's question, obviously drunk, and instead hugs Lily tightly for a brief moment and then offers the little one her wrists. "Hello, Cryo. No.. no parties. No. Just drinking. Because that's all felt like after getting back from the temples." She rolls her head over so she can see Cryo more clearly. "They said for me not to come back. Not until I am willing to 'atone for my deads.. deders..deeds.' Silly temples. I've not done anything to atone for. I don't think. So.. I'm going to close the Tarrace.. for good. City no longer wants people like me. I'm EVIL! See?" She waggles the carrot again.
Little Fang takes Sabina's wrists, her tiny claw-hands can't encircle them completely. She squeezes and announces happily, "Chains! Pretendsss chains." After which she stares. She's heard words like these before, from her Ssassa. Adults in pain are terrifying. She clings suddenly to Sabina's front, hugging her. "Noooo... Tias Beansss iss good."
Cryosanthia arrives, moves around behind the other woman, hands settling on her shoulders and rubbing deeply, "You need the massage now, I think."
She exhales, it's suddenly cooler in her presence, "this one saw the paper. I'm not sure what to make of it."
her head pans around, she sniffs, scenting the air, "She's not around, is she? Was she killed? You're not evil Sabina."
"Which Temples? Draco Solis' and Goddess Dreaming's are notoriously and entirely up their own asses. They'll even tell you it smells of lilac and sandalwood up there should you ask." Jinks reaches up to set the bottle down, unbuttons his coat, and climbs a stool to settle on. He snakes a glass and pours himself a couple fingers' worth from the gifted bottle.
"Paper?" The gnome asks, glancing at the sith. "Mulria's sideways smile, four-days gone and I'm entirely behind on gossip." He snaps and points a finger at Sabina, looking back to her. "Your mask. That's what's different."
"Yes, it's strangely like her real face." Cryo concurs.
"Awww.. I'm sorry Lily." Bina says, keeping her wrists together and looping them over the small one again to hug. "Forgive me. Auntie Beans is vvvvery drunk." She sage nods to herself with closed eyes. Carrot-horn flopping and then falling off and bouncing to the floor. She looks at it like it's too far away to reach. "Well, poop."
Giggle from her then and a sigh as Cryo massages her shoulders. "Drinksy.. Drinksy. Wasn't either of them. Was Tariens temple. They said things are too messed up right now. 'Glad ya told us. Here.. go fix it real fast or someone else will fix it for ya.' That means they were going to kill her. Cause things are black and white, you know. Gray.. gray is an illumin.. illsuon.. ILLUSION!"
"I didn't imagine it was Ceinara's," Cryo says, gesturing at the statue and the stage, encompassing the room before she returns to digging her thumbs carefully into Sabina's back muscles, "this is about as close to a Temple as she has in Alexandria, aside from the traveling dance platform, and her priests and priestesses are notoriously hard to find, sober or otherwise. I don't go to enough poetry readings."
Another huff, a firm exhale that mists the air with condensate, "Has Tarien abandoned you? You know, the Paladin's test: if I can still smite I've done nothing wrong. Must be very reassuring."
She stares at the bar and the far wall, "Ezil and I captured a demon, Jerboba, and he promised to return it to hell unharmed. Then he was stuck with it. The Iron Book told me to kill it for him. Gave me a ring of Mind Shielding, so it couldn't read my thoughts. This was the right thing to do, go around my friend's promise." She holds out her hand, a ring visible on a finger beneath her glove.
"Different ring now, but I wore that ring all the time I was in Salina's tower, wondering where I was in the grey." Her mouth slips into a thin line, a frown, "from the right angle, Paladin's Sacrifice looks like suicide, when everything is black and white. That's what Aya did, without being a Paladin. Forget the noble effort, let's focus only on the consequence, very, very narrowly."
A pause, and she quietly asks, "what did you do, after they told you that, that... " the whitescale hesitates, she's not even sure what to think about the Tarrace closing forever, "... that you're here."
Lily slides off Sabina's lap and retrieves the carrot. She's a little weight climbing backup, and she holds it towards her aunt to bite. "Carrots..." she says, then adds ominously, "...or the ssticksss!"
"Not every joke's a good one." Jinks counsels Sabina, tilting the glass her direction before he has a drink. The muscles in his jaw flex and his nostrils flare. "And giving people you don't agree with what they want-- even out of spite-- is rarely as gratifying as you might think. Though, I will admit to being biased and having grown rather fond of falling asleep in that chair," he admits, pointing towards the back corner of the balcony.
"Also..." he turns back to the table, looking between Cryo and Sabina momentarily. "Kill whom? I feel like I've missed the first Act."
Bina makes a snarly face and playfully bites the end off the carrot and chews. She tries to answer questions but with a mouth filled with carrot it comes out garbled. She hmms and then swallows the bite and tries again. "The temple? Oh.. nothing. Just took my pass and said come back when ya ready to atone. Then I had to come back and tell Rupi.. tell.."
Bina's eyes fill up with tears and she chokes on them for a moment. "Tell her 'hey I know and you know you're different from the other demons out there but...ya see.. you can't be here. And I can't go with you or else they'll hunt ya down. I'm not safe anymore so.. ya know... buzz off.. shoo. Fly away. See ya. Or else you're dead. And then the proclamation. Yeah. Seeing as I didn't break the pact I'm EEEEEVIL! So.. gotta go." She closes her eyes, trying to calm herself and then, just like that, falls asleep.
Lily keeps poking the carrot at Sabina's mouth, a childish attempt to get her to stop speaking, which does not work. She sits there, staring up at her auntie.
Cryo listens, unblinking, her cold and gem-like sapphire eyes fixed on her friend. She has a stillness, which isn't sylvain, a quietude of a different sort. She needs to hear this, understand, and respond appropriately. In vino veritas, and a lot of verity is coming forth.
Her reply carefully crafted, the whitescale begins to speak, "So..." Sabina immediately dozes off. Okay then. Cryo's thoughts are filed for later. She grins helplessly at Jinks, so many teeth, even with her friendly intentions that's a lot of sharp teeth.
"So... help me put her to bed? I'll fill you in on what I think is going on. I've got some shopping to do in Goblintown, and hopefully she'll be awake when we get back." Cryo slides her hands under Sabina's arms, Little Fang hops to the ground and crunches her carrot, then says, "Feets."
"Yes, take her feet Jinks, Lily will direct."
Even if this sort of work is generally beneath him, Jinks can't ignore the boon of the offered bottle and an unbalanced ledger. He blinks away his surprise at Sabina's outburst, bobs his head as he pours another quick drink, then downs it and hops off the stool. "Well, that last bit was helpful; Rupi was a demon. It sounds like she told Coyote's temple and they gave her a rather uncharitable ultimatum." His voice is slow and low, considering the words and how he feels about them even as he speaks.
"She was. A succubus." Cryosanthia says, lifting her friend out of the chair. She's bearing most of her weight, her request was primarily so she wouldn't drag her feet around. She moves for the stairs, voicing similar sentiments, "I'm not sure how I feel about it either."
A long exhale, "Sabina said we'd get along, but I wouldn't get past the threat..." a glance at her youngling, "we didn't talk. I told her to leave me alone and she did."
Being friendly with a demon wasn't a priority for her.
In silence, she carries her friend upstairs, with some help.
Lily is directing!
Jinks carries a foot under each arm, Sabina's footwear stick up past the back of his shoulders. He's actually a fairly sturdy gnome but the weight of a tallman is still considerable for someone of his size. "Rupi made it clear that she wasn't a fan," of him, it's clear even if he doesn't say it, "but showed me consideration for Sabina's sake."
He frowns and grunts, shifting his grip. "In spite of things I've done." He keeps his eyes on the ground, craning his neck to look around the hostess' legs and make sure his path is clear; especially once they've reached the stairs he needs to climb.
The TarRaCe proprietor, at least, is soon put to bed.
