forum Fera's Rest (ye olde generic fantasy tavern // open )

Started January 30, 2019 by @studiomnivorous

tune

Mellia reached one of her hands towards the man’s, shifting the force of her body weight from the floor to his frame.

Mendax took up a chair in the corner of the room, far away from the others, blatantly observing the injured women and the worker. Their hand glitched a bit, flickering and trembling for a bit after the glitch. However, they still watched, paying no attention to the glitch.

The intake of air puffed out as he accepted the weight, pulling upwards - carefully - and ready to steady her. Right as he moved, however, there was a nearly imperceptible jangle along the Weave. Old senses snapped his gaze to the source - the person in the far corner of the room - and there was a moment when the grey eyes locked with the other, the brow furrowing in an unconscious attempt to decipher what had caused the disruption of the metaphysical strings.

But then the weight of the woman was there, and Aras grunted, his attention turning as his lean frame did the same, trying to pivot her weight to the chair instead as he rose. He was fit, but not particularly strong, and she was weak, and not particularly helpful, and his distracted attention wasn't helping either, and this took a little bit of work.

(Sorry for the sudden disappearance, my iPad crashed). Mellia collapsed into the chair. “Again, thank you so much,” She said.

The work done, Aras takes a moment, straightening carefully. He doesn't look back to the other, glitching guest - that previous, if unintentional, eye contact was already too much a confrontation - but instead gives an eye over the woman. Now that she's sitting here, the wounds are obvious. Perhaps not life-threatening, but still something worth attending to. "I'll see what we have by way of medical aid." Aras pauses, noting that the bartender still isn't in the room…and if he runs into the man, it might take him a moment to update him on everything, not to mention to gather his fee. The grey eyes look back to the woman. "…It might take a moment."

A few long-legged strides take him swiftly across the room and to one of the doors leading into the back area. The tall frame ducks inside…

…and almost immediately, the bartender circles out from the other door, re-entering the scene. (Avoiding the tinkerer, of course.)

((No worries! These things happen. Welcome back!))

"Nonono! Bad Gloom! You spit Snagar's blades out now!"
On the edge of the road was a rather short, green creature. It was a young goblin, a strange one at that. Unlike many goblins, this one had a long tail behind it. It was clad in leather armor, a few spikes covering the end of its tail.
Now before it, was a massive spider that was even larger than the small goblin. The creature's fangs were curled around what appeared to be glinting metal shards, crude blades. On its back, was a saddle, clearly a mount for goblin. Either way, the giant spider didn't seem the least bit interested in listening to its rider. It simply flattened itself to the ground, occasionally batting at the goblin with its legs when the goblin tried to get a hold of its blades.
Snagar, as was his name, growled under his breath. His tail lashed back and forth, showing his agitation. It seemed incidents like this happened often. For the small goblin suddenly dug into his leather bag, pulling out a grotesque piece of rotting meat. He tossed it several feet away. In response, the giant spider instantly dropped the weapons, skittering over to the rotten piece of meat.
Snagar quickly jumped forward, grabbing the crude blades, returning them to his wrists. He shot a glare over to his mount with his yellow eyes. He continued to growl under his breath, packing the leather bag, then slinging it over his shoulder. Then just as he had jumped for his blades, did the goblin do the same thing with his giant spider. Snagar easily slid downwards, resting himself between the spider's abdomen and head.
Feeling its rider, the giant spider started to move forward. It slunk easily across the ground, covering ground swiftly. Now, most 'human' places were rather unwelcoming to the young goblin and his mount, but that was to be expected. Snagar let his mount continue for some time, before ushering a word in his own tongue, making the creature stop. His yellow eyes landed upon the building before him, he could sense there were others around and inside.
"Hm…bad place? Humans hate Snagar and Gloom," the creature's voice almost sounded sad as he patted the giant spider on its head, "Though we stop. Kay Gloom?"
The creature seemingly chittered, then started to stride forward. It crawled out of the cover of the overgrowth, skittering quickly towards the front of the tavern. As the giant spider came to a stop in front of the building, Snagar hopped off his mount. His long ears twitched a bit, jerking his head back and forth, looking all around.
"Hide in forest Gloom if danger. Snagar go get some stuff for road."
Then with that, the short goblin walked over. He had to jump up in order to reach the door handle, but he did finally get it, after several attempts of jumping up and down followed by curses in his own tongue…

Mendax placed their other hand over the glitching one, trying to stop the movement of the glitches so at least they wouldn't move. They still looked forward, not glancing down at their hands to see if the glitching really did stop, they could figure that out later. Now, in this moment, he wanted to study these people, see what life is like and how one can get injured in this time period.

…Luckily for him, the back room of the tavern was empty. Closing the door behind him, Aras leaned back against it - the door a shield, a barrier, a method to feel if someone was going to barge in - and shut his eyes. A series of counts - four in, four held, four out, four held, a string of breath timed and repeated - as he took a moment to himself to breathe. Okay. Okay.

He knew someone was injured, sure, and someone else was…not holding together too well? He wasn't entirely sure what it was, yet, but he didn't like how the strings felt… but Aras also knew that falling into old habits wasn't going to help the situation either. Fingers splayed against the door behind him, Aras reassessed: this was a messier situation than he signed on for, but he could handle this. She was wounded but it wasn't dire. He had a medical pack this time, and that could make things different. Even if the situation escalated, it wasn't his fault. Okay.

Okay.

His heartbeat steadied, and now that he wasn't surrounded by people or the infinite fractal of possibilities they presented, it was a little easier to feel the Weave of the situation. He didn't immediately feel the thickened weight of any strings to suggest that the woman had been followed, so the danger - at least of escalation in her regard - seemed minimal. Aras tamped down the urge to prepare, all the same; this wasn't the battlefield, this was a tavern, the worst was maybe a light tussle between patrons or not getting paid, there was no need to bind a Skein. There were some unusual vibrations in the weave here, but they were unclear…and seemed relatively passive for now. No need to bind a Skein. Okay.

The grey eyes slid open, blinking a few times as he steadied himself again, and went to the cabinets of the tavern, retrieving the few medical supplies he'd seen earlier. Not a lot, but with a little bit of weaving on his part, they'd be enough.

Arms full, he nudged the other door open with his foot, stepping back out into the room again.

The young goblin walked inside. He looked around, his long ears twitching slightly. The creature's tail swayed back and forth, yellow eyes glowing. He seemed rather awed by all the things inside the building. Snagar really wasn't used to such things, having only heard and caught glimpses. Usually as soon as he entered a building, he was booted right back out, just because of what he was; a goblin.
Snagar hopped upwards onto a stool, standing atop it. He rested his hands on the counter, looking around with his yellow eyes. There truly was many wonders about when inside a building created by humans.
"Ooo! Such shinys! Snagar like, Snagar like!"
One of his ears twitched back, hearing the very soft creak of a door opening. The goblin turned his head to see another soon entering the room. He could sense something…magical about this other, though he couldn't be sure. Snagar, watched the other curiously. The goblin was wondering where this man had come from, probably another room in this tavern.

Despite his calming routine, Aras couldn't (and wouldn't have wanted to) break old habits: coming through, his gaze swept to take in the room and its occupants, accounting for (and assessing) everyone as best he could. His eyes finally settled on the most immediate in proximity, the smallish creature at the bar. A mild surprise that manifested as a simple blink - gnoblii, here? - before being moved aside. After all, they'd let a Weaver come through. When you compared that to the relative harmlessness of a single Gnoblin, why not?

Aras grunted - a greeting? Or merely the effort of juggling the objects in his arms? - and glanced over to see the other door swing shut. The barkeep, no doubt, disappearing again to avoid the confrontation of paying the tinkerer for the work he'd already done. The grey eyes rolled before he glanced back at the creature, and then looked pointedly at the armful of medical supplies he was carrying. "Might be a moment." If the creature made enough of a fuss, the barkeep might return…or the creature might be patient enough to wait for Aras to return from delivering the supplies, and Aras might be able to wheedle a few extra gilg for the work of tending to the patrons. Remains to be seen, but either way, was it his problem? No.

Mendax frowned, finally looking down at their hands. The hands were still glitching, it seemed all their hands were good for was glitching. Probably, this body is weird. This whole world is weird. They thought as they pulled a small notebook-looking item out of a bag tied to their belt. They set the notebook on the table and flicked their wrist in a small motion, the glitch appearing as Mendax reached into one and pulled out a small pen-like item out of it. "P-p-presence… Weird…" They trailed off as they wrote something in the notebook with the item they had glitched into their hand.

There it was again: a twitch, the same sudden tug as someone pulling a hair off the back of your neck. Aras frowned, a granite chip to the side as he snuck a glance at the figure in the far corner. He wasn't close enough to see any specifics, not in this light, but there was most definitely an odd vibration in the weave there. It felt like, like someone had, had layered something in….but it wasn't the usual shape that something buried would give off.

The frown held steady, and Aras set the pile of supplies on the table before the woman. "Should do you." He paused, the next statement - "Let me know if you need more" - distracted, his gaze already focused back on the far corner. He was staring again, whether he'd realized it or not, and the light caught the last bright edges of the deepening frown in that gaze. Something was off.

"Per-p-peculiar." They stuttered to themselves as they glitched the pen back into the bag along with the notebook, they would continue the observation with their eyes instead of writing it down.

No, there was definitely a vibration now. The narrow head tilted a bit to the side, the long dark braid slipping off one shoulder to swing lightly against his back. Aras stared, the others momentarily forgotten (at least, until someone would do something to snag his attention, that is). Next to his sides, his hands twitched as well, the fingers moving ever so slightly as he felt out the threads that led to where the weight of the vibration sat, heavy, like a ball pulling at the fabric of a bedsheet.

The head tilted further; the gaze, at this point, wasn't so much a direct stare as one that had gone inward. Aras wasn't seeing much in terms of the surface of things, but rather, was focused on the entirely conceptual existence of the weaving ahead. His fingers moved again, rubbing the threads between his fingers in a thoughtful way, the action causing a slight tug against the resonance. For someone attuned to such things, it might feel a little like wind against the hairs on the back of one's arm, or the feeling of a bit of clothing caught on the rough wooden seats: mostly harmless, but distracting.

Snagar heard the grunt from the man, noticing him carrying materials. The short creature remained standing on the barstool. There was other movements happening around him, but none were threatening. Snagar's ears twitched forward a bit. As the stranger told him it might take a few moments, Snagar waved his small claws, replying.
"Okay! Snagar just wait here then."
Then with that, he plopped himself down, tail curling around his side. The creature continued to look all around him. He truly was awed by everything around him. His head jerked to the side, noticing another figure in a farther corner of the tavern. The goblin's yellow eyes caught sight of a strange thing seemingly happening with that individual. He was curious, but was also extremely wary.
This was all brand new territory. Snagar may be fascinated, but even he had learned to always be aware of his surroundings should a danger suddenly present itself.

He wasn't satisfied with the answer (as in, still no definite idea of what was exactly going on with the figure in the corner), but Aras was suddenly acutely aware that he'd been staring. Typically not a good behavior in a bar, where a fight was usually just a pint or two away. Especially not a great behavior if you happened to be a Weaver, unwelcome in the best of situations. The frown wiped itself from his face, restoring his expression back to its dry blankness, and he snapt on a heel, turning away.

On his way back to the bar, he lifted a chin at the woman, the motion a silent question to her wellbeing. He'd left her enough random things - if this was any kind of a good stock, then surely one of those bottles was some kind of Aspir elixir, and he'd noticed at least a number of Edni bandages, their sticky insides designed to stop the bleeding - and figured she'd speak up if something more were amiss or necessary.

A look beyond her proved that the barkeep still wasn't back, and Aras huffed a breath out through the narrow, hooked nose. Well, what gilg came he'd take, until the man showed up. Slipping back behind the counter, the nimble copper fingers worked the buckles of his tool belt, working to relieve himself of the weight of it for now. A glint of grey eye towards the Gnoblin. "What have you tonight, Gnoblii?"

Mendax hadn't full body glitched in a while… Their suspicions were raised to the fullest. There it is. They muttered, feeling the tingling sensation that meant their body was about to glitch. Just as Mendax thought this, their body glitched through the chair and they landed on the floor with a smack.

The loud thump, accompanied by the simultaneous and invisible jangling of the Weave, snapped his attention back to the figure. There'd been a moment - just a brief one - where everything had seemed in the right place, as it should be (and that, in itself, was jarring enough, and Aras realized how off things had felt since the stranger had made their way in), and now it was back, even more taut than before.

Aras shot a glance at the gnoblin before frowning again across at the other figure now on the floor. "Are you…" (what does one say in this moment? Are you off? Are you of this world? Are you dangerous? Hn. Not a lot of options, perhaps) "…okay?"

Mendax brushed themselves off, prepared to lie and be like their namesake. They did choose this name for it's meaning. "I am completely f-f-ine. No n-n-need to worry." They said, lying through their slightly pointed teeth.

"Yuhhuh. Suuure." Aras gave a sidelong glance at the Gnoblin again, the look clearly one of disbelief, and then looked back at the figure. "Oh, I'm not worried," Aras clarified, the narrow lips jutting to one side in a sympathetic line. "But…you might should be. Folks who…fall…" - (or do whatever it was you just did, the meaning was clear) - "…tend to attract attention."

It was the most he'd said all evening, but he'd meant it in a kind way, at least. If the place got much busier, someone was bound to notice who was a little less tolerating than Aras.

"Ah, fudge nuggets. I-I suppose I mus-s-t take my-m-my leave." Mendax said, standing up with a smile. "Th-thanks for the hos-hospitality!" They exclaimed cheerfully, glitching to the side of the man. If I'm getting kicked out, I might as well be dramatic.