New Beginning 23: One for the Record Books

[Philote]

"Are you trying sweeten me up by paying for the food?" She says with a smirk.

"That's Haven" she says pointing at the remaining paper. "Did your acquaintance ever mention it? There is someone...or I should say thing, that could be of use to us there."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"If he did I'm afraid I do not recall. You're welcome to join us, however, if you wish. It's the least I could do for your assistance." Knight says, as Vault goes over the menu. He looks up from it.

"We're not leaving now? We don't know what we could face, so we have to have some fun in case we die. Besides, we have to celebrate winning that fox hunt. You know, in spirit. I'm not leaving until I've pumped seven foxes worth of revenue into his town, and that starts with everything on this menu." He taps the menu on the table for emphasis.

[Philote]

"The invitation is welcome, but you'd hardly finish your quest without me. We're vising Haven to pick up the second half of the key. I'll be providing something from this world, and the Gate Guarding will proving something from theirs, and together we'll break that seal."

Dash stops by again after your meeting has been going for awhile and the four of you enjoy some fine Correnian cuisine. You get some Lava Fish sushi, some type of boar cooked over topaz coals, a salad that both Dash and Miss Shield insist is made from plants native to the Growth Elemental Plane, and many other delicacies.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Vault has to run back out several times, coming in with a new handful of gold each time, in order to keep up with Knight who might seriously eat everything in the restaurant. He comes back in to see the boy bite into a slab of boar that he's covered in sushi and just dumps his latest stack into the hands of the waiter. "Seriously, are you even tasting any of it?"

Knight quickly swallows his latest mouth-load. "Yes. It's all delicious!" he replies, now mixing sushi with his salad before dumping the bowl into his mouth.

Vault gags at that. "Where's he putting it all?" he wonders aloud before walking over to the table leaning down next to the natives. "What I just gave him should cover...everything that's left with the kitchen." He says with the kind of faraway look one finds on war veterans. "You guys know a place I could get some adventuring clothes at?" He indicates his blue jeans and the rattiest looking t-shirt anyone has ever seen, what he has been wearing all this time. "This just isn't going to cut it, and it's been a pain in the backside ever since, well..." He waves his new tails back and forth.

[Zaleramancer]

Location: Correnia
Time: 404. Tim-

Redness suffused the room. The floors, the tables, the air, the people- a red tinge flushed over them all. They froze, like so many flies trapped in amber, forks paused halfway to mouths and small bugs frozen in the air.

The sole creature mobile was Gentleman Vaultboy.

At least, for a moment. A.. thing appeared halfway across the room. Or rather, it seemed as if it had always been there. It filled a good portion of the room- what looked like a hugely fat and warty toad. It bulged and seemed to almost pool across the floor, warping around people and objects. It was covered in what looked like closed eyes, and on it's huge head were an rusty pair of bull horns. It looked that the Gentleman with red eyes the size of dinner plates, and breathed out green smoke, letting the sight of rows upon rows of jagged teeth become visible.

It's head extended, snaking forward on a mass of flesh until it was less than a foot from Vault's. It did not speak, but it's thought cut straight from it's mind and into his.

You aggravate me. I owe you nothing, but feel I must respect you.

A few of the eyes spread across the acres of rolling flesh opened.  

Ah. I see I am not the first to pay my respects. Both the Grey Eyed Lady and the Dead One? Strange that they would both respond so close to each other, and that the Dead One would respond at all.

Death does tend to.. decrease the amount of communication one makes. But even the ghost of a power cosmic is still capable of great things.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Vault freezes, his mind trying to process exactly what was happening. He coughs a bit and stutters, "Uh, well, yeah, of course they are. Lord knows if, um, I was a cosmic... thing I wouldn't let something as, you know, like death hold me back."

[Zaleramancer]

The frog-thing laughs, deep rumbling noise, and fat jiggles as it does.

Indeed. And I shall give to you advice. The Dead One wishes an audience with you. Take no rush, you will find yourself upon the planet Vix in good time. It may well be months. I would only worry a.. moderate amount. He generally is not known for harming people, though I do not recall anyone ever visiting.

Take care in who you mention the invitation to. There are those who might very well grow upset if they knew, and it is unwise to upset those that can break a continent across their knee.

After all, the Dead One did not die of natural causes.

It smiled, a toothy unpleasant grin that stretched for what seemed like miles.

Au revoir, monsieur.

There's a jerk and the redness fades from the air. The huge toad creature is gone, and time continues as if had never been there.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Vault looks around as time starts moving again. Was there something in the food? No, not possible. With everything that Knight had shoved into his stomach he would be tripping balls.

He quickly snaps his fingers in front of Knights face to make sure he is not, in fact, tripping balls. The boy attentively looks up, slurping down a last bit of sushi before saying "Yes?"

"Uhhhh...." Vault thinks of ways he'd be able to explain a giant time warping toad, but then decides against it. Instead, he asks "You gonna be hitting any more restaurants after this?"

Knight licks his last plate before replying. "I don't think so. This should be enough for tonight. It's just been so long since I had a nice meal..."

Vault casts his eyes on the towering pile of plates flanking the boy on either side. "Right. I'm going to take off for a bit, find a place where I can buy some proper clothes. You can stay hear and....finish up."

Knight nods as the next plate suddenly arrives, and Vault turns away before he has to watch the kid eat. "So," he says to the Aeonians. "Now about that store?" he asks.

[Zaleramancer]

Dimension #492, Before

This was beginning to become rather tiresome.

One was referring to, of course, the unnerving sensation of being watched that had plagued her for the last few moments. It was not actually possible that anything could perceive her within the confines of her warren of storage rooms, libraries, warehouses and pounds- but she could not shake the feeling.

And it was starting to become potentially problematic, as many things within that area would soon start reacting to the undue attention this place was receiving.

For the second time, One attempted to banish whatever thing or entity or collection thereof was observing her, but unlike the first time, it failed to work. The many spiraling halls of the chamber flashed blue as she thrashed through them in her astral form, attempting to lose whatever it was.

It seemed she'd have no choice, then, but to leave and hope the attention followed. While she hated leaving, for fear of what might happen, the defenses of the place were top notch- designed by no less than herself.

Nothing worse than normal could happen.

So the reality bending mentality flowed from the rooms and chambers and oscillated into another dimension. Because if she knew one thing, she knew that 90% of the time, there was only one group of people you could really blame.

Kenethica, Now

A young woman walked through the teaming crowds of the massive party, going rather unnoticed. She was, after all, far from the strangest looking thing at the party.

In fact, she seemed almost impossibly average looking, being so mundane looking that it was almost as if she'd been put together with the intent of saying nothing more than Look At How Human I am, Fellow Human.

But details filtered through this averageness. The clothes would probably be the start, because the girl was dressed in sandals, bell-bottoms, a tie-dyed blouse and a beaded headband. She even had a peace-sign necklace and hair down to her waist to complete the ensemble. In a more Earth-like world, this might have drawn a few stares and snickers, but those would have been cut short when they saw her eyes.

They were an electric blue so bright and loud it almost burned. There were no pupils, only points so bright that looking at them left afterimages.

Those that did notice her eyes gave her a wide berth. They said eyes were the windows to the soul. If that saying were true then this girl's soul must burn like a blue star going supernova.  

[Philote]

(Location: Aeon, Race: Correnians )

"Yes, I'll take you around and help you get whatever you need" Dash says "And maybe take a peak at how you're getting so much money. In any case, we should go quickly so that Miss Shield and Knight do not have to wait long for their departure."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Right." He says, following Dash out the door. "We'll be back."

Once they're outside Vaults skin takes on the gooey blue consistency and he transforms back into the small, cat like creature. Gripping the coin on his head, he tosses it at Knights fish abomination. The glowing projectile breaks apart on contact, scattering coins in the street. After doing this a few times, Vault shifts back into his regular form and moves to pick up the sparkling coins.

"It's called Payday." he explains. "See, there's this game called Pokemon on my planet where you collect all these different monsters, and while I was down in those caves I developed a power that lets me change into any of them. One of them has an attack that literally makes money."

He stands back up, arm laden with gold. "So far, it might be the one power I don't regret having."

[Philote]

"Well, I don't suppose that is technically stealing. Just don't go disrupting the economy" Dash says as he leads Vault around town. The town is built just where the Topaz caves turn back to solid ground.

"If you're just looking for ordinary clothes then we probably have about anything you need. Your current clothing doesn't seem too outlandish from what we already wear" he continues on saying sometime later in the day.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Marv sighed loudly. The party hadn't held his attention. Despite it being a huge success, it still felt like it was missing something. Sighing again, Marv rolled off the roof where he lay and landed heavily on the ground two stories below, cracking the pavement. On top of it all, he was feeling a bit odd today, not quite right.

Slowly he made his way back towards the party. As he walked, his arm cracked. After a few more steps it turned entirely to quartz. A few more and it began to disintegrate, falling apart until it was gone completely. Marv, stopped and stared at the shattered remains of his arm.

"Hmmm....that's....odd..."

Concentrating for a moment, a new arm formed in place of the old one.

"There..."

Marv continued back to the party. He shook hands, greeted friends and mingled. All the while he hid perfectly, the small seed of fear he felt at the back of his mind. Something wasn't quite right with him, and he was beginning to suspect the worst.

[Ericus Europaeus (Bug)]

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[Marvelous Miscreant]

"Bug! You rascal!  I've been great, and yourself?" Marv called back, as he spread his arms in welcome.

[Ericus Europaeus (Bug)]

CONTENTS DELETED

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[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"That's good, because I don't want anything outlandish." He says. "Roomier pants and a clean shirt. Probably a change. Maybe a coat, for if it gets chilly." He looks down at the gauntlet. "I'm going to have to cut the sleeve off of something. Or just get big sleeves."

This is what he looks for. Roomy pants, large sleeves. Some sleeves are altogether to small, leading to ripping and hasty paying off of the establishment. Shorts are considered, then immediately dismissed. Finally, he finds something loose enough to cover all of his new divergent parts. Sure the pants have to be tied on, but they're loose enough that he doesn't have to cut a hole for the tails. The sleeves have to be tied up, but they're big enough that the gauntlet can fit through them. He even manage to find a hat big enough to cover his second pair of ears.

All in all, he looks sort of like a wondering monk. AKA, pretty outlandish. He had tried to make it less outlandish by picking the most dull colors possible, but the dullest everything came in was a dull sort of blue that actually looked pretty swell.

He grumbles as he pays. "You know what I just realized?" He says, stepping out. "None of my clothes back home fit me anymore. I'm going to spend the rest of my life shopping in Halloween stores."

[The Narrator]

Narrator yawns. " Hey Bug and M&m. I'm here too, just had some 'hills to climb!'"

*rimshot*

--
Derek A. Haynes
Lead Tutor
Destined for Greatness: Academic Services

[Philote]

Dash does not try to restrain his amusement at your clothing antics. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather go on a quest to find a Core User to help you with your predicament?" He asks as he leads you back to the restaurant where Miss Shield is finishing her meal.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"There's no fixing what I have." He replies, stepping back in to the restaurant. "One of these days I'll grow a giant head or an octopus face, and there's going to be nothing I can do about it."

He stops short when he sees the kitchen sitting at the bar. The head chef raises his glass to them before downing it. He walks over to Knight, who's idly kicking his feet under the table. "You seriously ate everything?"

"No." He replies. "I distinctly remember remember you, Mr. Dash, and Miss Shield having some."

"You guys want to get out of here before we're jumped by the chore boys?" Vault asks the table.