CLOSED SIGNUPS The Diner - a place of rest, relaxation, and recuperation

[Red Thunder]

The Diner
Interest Thread / Sign Ups
​

"Relief? Yeah, that's usually the first feeling- anyone gets, really."

Moe set down his mug. Black coffee, like always. In the chipped ceramic, like always. Steam rose from the oil inside. Just how he liked it; thick enough to stand a horse shoe in.

"First time is always a bit of a surprise, sure," he said. "You'll get used to it."

"But-"

Hale sat, still gapping, at his host. Well, the host of his table. The Owner, er, Ma'am, had greeted him as soon as he'd stepped foot into this strange place. Moe had offered him a place at his booth. So he sat, a haze on his mind and a glass of water in his hand. Relief was certainly not the first feeling he had. It was more like- immense confusion. The words stuck in his throat, or maybe the got jammed in his brain, there were so many of them. Instead, all he could do was to glance about in awe. Seating for maybe forty, though occupied by just them currently, the room was immaculately clean. Overhead, soft light glowed down from hanging lamps of translucent glass. A checkered pattern of black and white tiles provided a solid foundation for uncertain feet. Polished plastic seats of red and white were pulled up to tables of pristine ivory, and stools stood like sentinels about the bar, where the Owner stood. She was drying a glass (there seemed to be no end to the cleaning up), but she'd glance to their table every so often with a knowing smile, checking whether they needed anything.

Finally, the thoughts flitting about his mind coalesced into a coherent question, and it fell from his mouth without his much intending it to.

"How did I get here?"

Mid-sip, Moe snorted a laugh. Coffee dribbled down his unkempt mustache and onto his chin.

"Don't rightly know, kid," he chuckled, wiping the mess with a red handkerchief that hung about his neck. "Soon as you walked through whatever door you last did, you came here. And soon as you leave through yon door, you're back where you were. Can't explain it, and Ma'am won't."

As he spoke, Moe nodded toward the portal in question. It was a simple thing of a metal frame, a clear glass interior, and a cylindrical pull bar. Outside, a gentle rain fell: soft and full of mist and impenetrable by the eye. It only served to reinforce the warmth in Hale's heart to be here. Unconsciously, his eyes darted to a wooden coat rack that stood by the entrance. His staff, runes still a-glowing, rested against the wall beside it. From a hook near the rack's top, a wide brimmed hat hung; it's brim was pulled up at the sides, and the top was folded in. It was likely Moe's.

There were so many questions, and Hale felt his pointed ears burn from the headache they were all giving him. But there was no time to ask them. At that moment, the door opened, the bell at its top corner announcing the arrival of a new guest.

***​

@Kuno @Nemopedia here we go! Feel free to come in and relax. Go wild on what may have happened with your character immediately prior to coming to the Diner! Get into your character's head and flesh out the disorientation she may have at her sudden arrival here! For setting reference for the Diner, please use the attached picture at the top of the post. Looking forward to your first ones!

 

[Kuno]

JIN CHO

Jin had said it once and she would say it again: extraction jobs were the crutch for which the galaxy's brightest minds leaned their shortcomings upon. In laymen's terms: scientists made for stupid human beings.

Neptune; the planet evoked images of blistering, 2,000 km an hour winds and deadly icescapes. Diamonds, too. Yeah - a big surprise. It turned out the carbon compressed in the air did make Neptune spit out diamonds, much to corporations and pirates' delight. Small, nonprofit scientific ventures like FreeMan had suddenly found themselves sponsored by commercial entities keen on cashing in, and these scientists - greedy and bloated with enterprise - had made all haste to get a space station rigged up on the planet's icy surface. Shaped like a dome, the outpost had been designed to withstand everything: the maelstorms, the torrential rain, the devastatingly cold winter…Truly, the company's greatest minds had accounted for everything.

Well. Almost everything. Everything except the notion that, gee, Jin didn't know, that something lived on the planet already. A tale as old as time; how many other colonies had Jin been sent to that had run across the same groundbreaking revelation?

Like she said: scientists made for stupid human beings.

"Three minutes, doc. Let's go. We're losing heat."

Jin's breath fogged against her helmet, and she could feel Doctor Browning regard her from behind the black of his spaceshield. "Just a few more files," He assured her, and she grunted, looking askance.

The other scientists had been cleared out days ago. Browning, for whatever reason, had lingered; whether out of academic pride or unwillingness to lose his research, she didn't know. All of it could be chalked up to more suicidal stupid in her mind. The man had holed up all his rations and supplies in his office and barricaded the door with the desk - the first smart thing he'd done. Jin's eyes roved over the dull grey metal of the insulated room, the lone light in the corner casting long shadows over their bulky, space-suited forms. She hefted the plasma rifle in her hands, eyeing the barricade.

"They haven't been around in days, you know. Really, it's-"

He stopped himself short, a sheepish look going to the jagged cuts across Jin's uniform. Unseen, her bruised brow raised.

Yeah. Even after the ship wide briefing, she really hadn't been expecting so many of the things to be running rampant on the outpost. Gorgonites, they called them. Best way for her to describe them was "rocky space gorillas", though the science officers aboard took offense with her ignorant breakdown of their composition. Frankly she didn't care what they called them; she just knew that after fighting through five just to get to Browning that they could all go to hell.

At exactly three minutes later, Jin forced a protesting Browning out the room into the thick, sweeping darkness of the outpost hall. The power had gone haywire; Browning, somehow, had diverted the back-up generator to just his quarters. It was the only way he'd been able to survive the cold. Even in their tri-layered, thermal suits, Jin could still feel the bite of the -200 Celsius weather cutting through at her skin, and she used the butt of her gun to rudely push the doctor forward.

"Get to the landing pad. I'm gonna do a final sweep."

Ignoring his grumbling as he walked off, she pushed the communicator at the side of her head. "Control, we're a go. E.T.A. on pick-up?"

"--Disconnected fro --ntrol--we---ncy!"

"What?"

Weather conditions on Neptune often drove the frequencies haywire. Jin didn't panic when the call dropped abruptly; she waited patiently for what she knew would soon be a scroll of text across her front screen. Nam was at the comms today, and he didn't believe in miscommunication.

The incoming message pinged as she padded through the dank, frigid mess hall. Words scrawled quickly across her vision as she nudged a bundle of torn clothing on the ground with her foot.

We're trying to connect the remote pad to Control's hailing frequency. Hang tight. A warning: Langley's sensors have picked up movement in your vicinity. Eyes sharp.

And then her headset picked it up: a howl, wan and shallow as the wind's, but eerily reminiscent of a wolf's. Jin's head swiveled towards the hall, the howl petering in through the open door.

More howls joined it.

"Shit."

Gorgonites were fast, faster than they had a right to be. As she ran down the hall away from the pad, she could hear the clunking of their hands and feet against the steel floors, their whooping turning into a hellish scream. Fighting them in open spaces like the hall was a mistake; the little freaks' skin clung to every surface, and they would run up walls and across ceilings in the flash of gunfire. Best thing to do was find a tight corner and light the bastards up.

The station's old engineering room was the last room at the end of the hall. With the steady thrum of her frenetic heartbeat egging her on, Jin slammed the safety lock up and away from the frame before kicking the door in. A shriek came from behind, too close for comfort; Jin swung around, pointing her gun at the shadows stretching towards her from around the corner.

"Cmon, cmon, cmon," She muttered. She took a step back. Then another.

The whooping grew louder. Her finger curled around the trigger, and she took another step back.

"C'mon."

One more step back. She leaned in, squeezing her left eye shut as she aimed at a burgeoning mass of grey…

...until everything grew white.

At first, Jin thought someone might have thrown a flash bomb, as ridiculous as that sounded. But as the soldier for hire jolted away from her gun, she realized that the "white" was bright fluorescent lights reflected on glass...a glass door. Cloudy, rain-filled skies could be seen beyond; they were not, however, the turbulent deep blues of Neptune. Jin lowered her gun, and as she removed her helmet slowly, she turned, like a marionette.

This wasn't the old engineering room. No, it was something else entirely. The make-up was that of an antique diner, like something straight out of a retro holo. A handful of people were seated around the place, and she stared unabashedly at them, the shock on her face quickly melding into bewilderment. There was not one Gorgonite in sight.

Was she...dreaming?

The unduly harsh smack across her own cheeks quickly dissuaded that thought. Almost in a panic, she hailed her ship from her headset only to receive static in response. Then she tried again. And again.

"Uh…"

Jin never panicked. Even as the sweat budded at her temple, the woman remained still, her mind running through the growing list of increasingly impossible explanations. Alien teleportation? No, no; only thing on Neptune so far were the monkeys. Hallucination? Maybe. But she'd already slapped herself. And if she was hallucinating, then damn; what a crappy fever dream. Unless…

"God damn it," Jin breathed, her gun clattering to the floor. She made a frustrated noise through her nose, and she pinched the bridge hard.

She'd been killed, hadn't she?

 

[Red Thunder]

The Diner
​

"Language."

The command wasn't harsh, but it was firm. The kind of tone that a grandmother used with a loved but erring child. It came from the bar. An older woman sporting a simple dress of off-white turned a smile her way. Hers was a worn face, the lines telling of struggles and storms beyond imagining, but the crags that blossomed from the corners of her eyes were the strongest, and her violet eyes twinkled as the smile reached them.

"Come in, honey. Take any seat you may like." She cocked her head briefly to the side, indicating that Jin should enter. There was plenty of space for a visitor to claim; save for a man in a misshapen mustache and a teenaged boy with pointed ears and red hair, the place was empty. "I'll come take your order in a minute."

She lifted a drinking glass from where she had set it down. Removing the dish towel from within, she placed it carefully in a stash hidden beneath the bartop before grabbing a clear pot of black coffee from near the stove-top and coming around to the dining area. Mustache looked up, grinning.

"You always know."

"Wouldn't be very hospitable if I didn't. You decide on anything yet, honey?"

The last, she directed at the boy even as she filled the man's cup. The boy, already red in the ears, blushed more deeply as he looked down.

"F-fried eggs? A-and apples?"

"Oh course, honey."

She didn't write his order down. Finished with her duties there, the woman made her way to Jin.

"And what's your pleasure, honey?"

@Kuno

 

[Kuno]

JIN CHO

Funny; she'd imagined her own death before. Not from some sort of sick, morbid fascination, but from a brutally honest take on what would have likely marked the end of her career. She'd always figured an interplanetary gang member would get her; some big, tough brute with a gun would pin her down in a gunfight, and when the ammo would inevitably run out, they'd tussle, and eventually…

Crack. A neck snap. Or a good ol' nab with a stab.

Really, she'd never had a preference. Just so long as her last moments were pumped full of action, and Jin knew she'd be at peace in the afterlife.

To end up getting blitzed by moon apes in a sneak attack was...a buzzkill, to say the least. She wondered who would go back for her body. She wondered if anyone would be sent back for her body. Delta Corps. -- bless their money-grubbing souls -- could be a tad callous when it came to derelict, off-world projects. The space station might very well be her mausoleum; maybe she could ask whoever was in charge in the Big Up to let her wander around as a spirit and hassle the eventual return of more stupid scientists.

"Language."

Jin's eyes snapped to attention. She didn't know why heaven had manifested as a garish twentieth century diner. She'd never cared for vintage in the slightest, and the bright red of the seats and bar took her mind to its iron liquid cousin. The galactic mercenary hazarded a step forward, then another before taking root again, her face turning about the place with growing calmness.

There were only three people there. An older man dressed vintage style, and some kid sitting by him with strange pointed ears, like an elf. That was all the rage thirty years ago. Plastic surgeons found a way to shape the bone in your ear to be pointed, and next thing you knew everyone on the planet was a shoe-in for Santa's helpers. Then people got tired of that, and what do you know? Ear tucking was the next big thing. Jin looked away from them to the last person in the place: some older lady in stylized diner wear, who looked to be managing the place. She must've been a -- oh, what did Christians call them...angle? Angel?

Jin blinked slowly as the lady spoke to her again. Something sparked in her eyes at the question.

"Oh great, you must be managing this little section of heaven. Hey listen--"

The soldier leaned in closer, dropping her voice down to a conspiratorial whisper.

"If it's ok with top brass, can I get five more minutes alive? I just- I don't want to die like such a bi- uh, punk. You know? At least let me blow myself and a few Gorgonites up."

 

[Nemopedia]

Dynalight;Mate;

Louelle Huang

"You're a wizard, girl."

The words were so memetastically similar to that one series of that one author that she rather not mentioned that Louelle had nearly laughed into the face of the dumbass that had told her this unironically.

"You're a wizard and I'm a dragon."

She would have laughed even harder at that, and hopefully laughed herself out of a drowsy dream that she didn't remember falling into, if it wasn't for the fact that they had been sitting in the library. Exams were around the corner and Louelle had, like a true student, procrastinated too hard and felt the fire underneath her arse when David decided to come and waste her time in true… well she didn't actually know that, she just suspected that he, the one she called David, was someone of a time-waster with bad timing. Just like she had suspected that he was named 'David' at all, to which he hadn't corrected her on, yet.

What had her response been? Other than a brain full of the foundations of metaphysics there had been little humour within the female who usually tried to find the humour in everything. Something about a repeated 'no' and 'no's' before she scurried her books together and scrambled out of her seat to get away from this lunatic that somehow managed to track her down to… everywhere?

In hindsight, this self-proclaimed dragon was a creep to the major factor, seemingly knowledgeable to her every moment as he scored her down to her very classes and even beyond that.

Should she sue him for copyright infringement? The crash course intellectual property she had taken had told her no, she wasn't the holder, after all. Harassment? Stalking? It came pretty near it and by now Louelle was actually terrified of finding his presence just around the corner, those wide golden eyes begging her to help him out as he did everything to convince her that whatever he spat out was true other than actually proving anything at all.

Next time. That was the promise she made to herself as she got back to her dormitory, hand on the door handle as she fought away the vertigo getting to her, bleary eyes pinching close to blink away the fatigue washing over and the dryness she usually experienced after staring at a screen for a full day.

She would need to cook some dinner soon, maybe just keep it to a light snack, then get to her reports and hit the books, read the articles…

There was so much to do and then there was this nonsense following after her and that gnawing feeling that it was the truth much rather than a lie.

Lies, lies, lies. Nonsensical lies. Louelle tried to convince herself as she bumped her head to the doorpost, as if wanting to beat that conviction into her brain before she pushed the door further open and stepped into a room that didn't resemble the dingy college dormitory that she was renting for cheap and where logically, there should have only been a table and a bed for her own use.

Instead there were several chairs, tables and a bar, with no bed in sight and fluorescent lights that slightly hurt her dry eyes and were a bit too bright for her sleep-deprived and overly stressed behind accompanied with the slight headache that she was experiencing from fatigue and stress that was threatening to grow out into something worse.

The smell was nice, however. Warm and homely with a hint of apple from the order of a boy and the thought of pancakes lingered in her mind. What she wouldn't do for a warm meal that she didn't have to cook herself.

Forcing herself back into the present Louelle took in a deep breath, eyes squinting as she shakes her head in an attempt to waken herself, not quite sure what had happened, but quite sure she wasn't a character in 'Howl's moving castle' the last she checked, yet finding herself in an unfamiliar space that seemed to quite serve exactly that what she was craving the most.

"I–" she starts, then blinking again as she tries to recall the path she has taken from the university campus and its library back to her dormitory, right after running away from David once more. She hadn't taken any strange turns, but Louelle couldn't say it for certain either as she hadn't been paying too much attention. The road wasn't complicated after all and she knew it by heart. She thought.

Peeking over her shoulder she couldn't make out much either, her eyes mysteriously too blurry to really make out what it was other than making out that it was bad weather and that she might as well take shelter.

Her feet turned into lead and her cheeks grew hot when Louelle remembered that she hadn't packed her wallet today, wanting to save up on money and not spend it unnecessarily. How it was biting her ass right now, for the smell of scrambled eggs, fresh pancakes and everything she had skipped today were beyond tantalising and taunting to her stomach.

Maybe, if she was really quiet, she could just take shelter until the weather cleared up. Work some more on her assignments, maybe even take a nap so that the waiters wouldn't nag her for not ordering anything. Louelle was already thinking of a thousand and one ways to cover up her situation as she quietly opened her laptop, hoping to heavens that it had enough charge left.

 

[Red Thunder]

The Diner
​

The owner's face wrinkled gently, eyes taking on a softer gaze as she smiled patiently.

"Oh honey. You aren't dead. That door behind you? You can go back any time you like." An easy correction from a kind matron. The coffee pot still in one hand, she reached the other around Jin's back and placed it on her shoulder. A feeling of safety and comfort exuded from the woman's closeness, deeper even than that inherent to the Diner itself. She guided the soldier, easy step by easy step, to the booth just behind that of Mustache. "But you need a break. It's pretty obvious. So rest up, fill up, and head back when you are ready.

"Now, I-" She paused, glancing to the front door. Nothing remarkable had happened, but she stared at it all the same. "My. Lots of guests today. Think about what you want to eat, and I'll take your order shortly."

Patting Jin on the shoulder once more, the owner turned away. A swift deposit of the coffee pot on the hot plate, and she was back at the entrance. Her guest was already waiting.

"Hello, honey. Welcome to the Diner. Take any seat you like. Maybe make a friend!" She gestured about the place. There were plenty of seating options, from empty (and partially occupied) booths to tables and chairs to the bar itself, around which perched floor-installed stools. "Think about what you'd like to eat, and I'll be with you in a bit."

The owner's gaze lingered a moment longer toward the disjointed group of three already present, but she made no other indication of suggestion concerning where Louelle should take herself. Instead, she gave the girl a small, knowing grin, then head back to a swinging door in the back. By the sounds and smells that soon followed, it was likely the kitchen.

The boy seated across from Mustache slumped a bit in his seat. His pointed ears had finally returned to pink, but he still looked distinctly uncomfortable. Mustache looked like he was oblivious to the fact.

"S'what's it like," he said, taking a sip of coffee from his mug, "in your land? I've seen some strange people here, but not like you. Glowy stick and all. Oh! Hell, I've-"

He bit his words off, casting an apologetic glance toward the kitchen.

"Goodness, I mean. Never did introduce myself. Moses. Call me Moe."

He held out his hand for a shake. The boy grasped it, somewhat loosely, a bit of red returning to his ears.

"Hale. I-" He faltered before clearing his throat. At Jin's approach, he had glanced at her with wide eyes, brow furrowing as he attempted to figure her out. The door behind him, Hale hadn't turned when Louelle had entered. No need to add to his embarrassment. "It's- well, it's a forested land. Trees stretch for miles upon miles. It's temperate, too: never too cold but never too hot."

Moe nodded, having looked back to Hale after nodding to Jin as she passed.

"Sounds like some fertile ground! Nice place to raise a family, yeah?" He chuckled, an edge of sadness or regret cutting through the mirth. "You have family?"

"Yes- and no."

Hale fell silent. Moe nodded, as if understanding, before turning to introduce himself to his new neighbor.

"Ma'am." He gave Jin a lazy salute. "Looks like you've been through the ringer."

@Kuno @Nemopedia

 

[Kuno]

JIN CHO

The booth felt real. Nice and cushioned, in a way Delta Corps. hadn't bothered with since the 20s. Her image didn't blur around the edges like it did in virtual simulations, either. Everything about the diner–the mouth watering scents, the warmth of the old woman's touch, the serene quiet–was real, realer than it had any right to be. Jin sank into the padded seat, her knees bumping against the table as she hung a little out the edge.

Strangely enough, she didn't really have the energy anymore to question how she'd gotten there, or where there even was. Because yeah, the lady was right–she did need a break. Badly. And not the type of break Gorgonites put in you when they got their rocky paws around one of your limbs.

Head back when you are ready. Ha. Who was ever ready to go back to a job like that?

The absurdity of it all should have made her laugh. Her gun looked jarringly out of place propped up against the seat cushion across from her, pointing at nobody. Her frost-bitten helmet joined it, and Jin grunted as she eased out of the top layer of her spacesuit, her muscles whining in protest. There was a bruise there, somewhere. She didn't want to think about it.

When the mustachioed gentleman spoke to her, Jin snapped to, eyes attentive.

"Oh, law. You have no idea. They were like- like this close-" She pinched her fingers together in front of her face, almost touching them "-to nabbing me, sir. But I…ended up here. Somehow. So I guess…"

Her eyes drifted to where the owner had disappeared, to where the delightful smells continued to filter through, unhindered. She looked back at Moe, shrugging.

"I guess I'll get a pancake before I go?"

 

[Nemopedia]

Dynalight;Mate;

Louelle Huang

The place itself seemed rather retro, or what the media tried to pass off as retro-vibes to give that old feel that Louelle couldn't relate to anymore. Neon lights, benched and bar in the same colour. It was very, not Paris, very much only what she had seen on television, in a series that tried to be dark and dusty and mysterious.

A mystery it certainly was, along with the people. Strangely enough it wasn't even the owner that seemed out of place, despite the out of place-ness of this place entirely. The blushing man there, another man with a moustache and then there was another female, a woman, Louelle guessed that she was older and an instinct within told Louelle to refer to her as jie jie.

They all looked out of place, as if dressed up for something. The man dressed like he could go for an adventure in the mountains with some dwarfs, the other looking like she came straight from a cyberpunk setting.

Was there a filming ongoing? Or perhaps there was a convention that Louelle hadn't noticed? They certainly didn't look Parisian, and Louelle meant that inoffensively.

Seeing that the battery of her laptop wasn't to last Louelle quietly shut it after taking place in one of the booths, her eyes shifting over to the trio that seemed just as surprised about being here, their appearances a clashing of genres.

"Uhm, hi, can I ask you something?" she finally dared herself to speak up, hoping that none of them would take offence in her interrupting the conversation. She was just curious, so very curious and maybe that could explain everything that had happened today, including coming here.

"I was wondering, if there was a convention nearby, since you're all dressed like…" Halting herself Louelle pondered if she sounded unintentionally judgemental. Her brain autofilled the rest of her sentence and she decided that it did, a breath quickly stirring her into a different direction.

"I just think your costumes look really neat and wanted to ask in which arrondissement the convention is," Louelle finished, flashing a smile after it just to put some emphasis on her polite approach. Or what she considered a polite approach.

 

[Kuno]

JIN CHO

"What?" Jin said.

Guns for hire had a bad reputation most of the time. Most folks deemed them the stupid, lazy bits of society that were too violent and cocky to be plugged into anything else. So they got stuck into the bully positions. You know - the muscling, guarding, shakedown jobs. Tasks that only required a single brain cell and a heft of your girth.

By all accounts, Jin thought of herself as being of average intellect. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, no, but one that would still cut you pretty good. The fancy word that the pretty young girl had uttered filtered through her brain a bit, processing - arrodis? Arron-whata? - before quickly being ignored, the military side of her deeming it inconsequential. She didn't need to know what it meant to put two and two together.

"Costumes?" She echoed. The soldier shook her head. "Oh no, ma'am; it's all real. Delta Corps. issued uniforms - with security detail bruises to boot. Standard issue gun…"

She waved vaguely in its direction. Then, thinking better of it, she pushed it further into the corner, allowing the booth seat across from her to have room. She glanced at the young woman.

"I...take it you got plucked here too? From...wherever."

The girl's clothes were outdated by at least a century, give or take. Just like the man in the booth behind them. Jin offered a polite smile, though her eyes lingered.

Maybe it was best she didn't think too hard about it.

 

[Red Thunder]

The Diner
​

"Yeah, s'abit jarrin', say the least." Moe chuckled, gesturing to Hale as he did. The boy blushed again at the attention. "Was just explainin' to the kid here afore y'all entered. Ya get used to it; Ma'am is always welcomin', and the Diner seems to draw folk what need drawin' to. Why, I was at the bank afore I arrived here! Dealin' with the damned sharks about the lien on my property, when-"

"Moses Zechariah Whithead, I swear by all that is holy about my peach cobbler!" The matronly voice echoed out from the kitchen, easily heard over the hiss of cooking grease and the clank of dishes. "If you can't control that rough talk of yours, I'll throw you out on your ear!"

It was Moe's turn to blush. Yes'm was his quiet reply. Hale chuckled, the first sign of real personality. It was not cruel; rather, it was that of a private joke. The cowboy quickly smiled himself, taking no offense.

"Anyways, I was desperate. The sharks were comin' for my land, and my wife'n little'ns wouldn't have no place to go. Left out in the cold, as it were. I can manage by myself, but a man has responsibilities for others." Hale nodded slowly and deeply, an absent look in his eyes. Moe continued. "I saw the outside through the bank door; they'd spent the money to get windows in it, the spendthrifts. Opened it up, 'n here I was."

"Yes, and you gave a yelp and ran back out, too. Didn't return for another week, if I recall." The ambience of food preparation from the kitchen had faded, and the owner was approaching, a smile on her face. She scooted over to Jin and Loulle, arms crossed. "No more waiting; I know you two are hungry. What'll it be? Anything you like."

@Kuno @Nemopedia

 

[Nemopedia]

Dynalight;Mate;

Louelle Huang

Delta Corps? Standard issue gun?

Louelle blinked owlishly at the woman, feeling a little at loss at how well the cosplayer acted and how much in character she remained when rattling off in perfect script what would be an explanation of her wear.

She hoped that the gun part was fake, or just part of the script but in overall non-existent. The memory of French soldiers with huge artillery prancing around the city was still fresh in her mind after all. After each incident that threatened the public security, hugely packed, armoured and all, and above all; stern faced.

"I…" at the question that she got plucked Louelle didn't know how to answer, "Paris, 13th arrondissement," Louelle finally answered, feeling a flush crawl up when she felt confident that this was not an answer to the question. Silly, she had walked into this place after all.

And then the other spoke, his accent thick and Louelle couldn't quite figure it out, but knew that she couldn't quite complain for she most likely had an accent to them. He as well, just as much as Moses, seemed to be rattling off a script that Louelle wasn't privy to and she wondered if she really hadn't just accidentally walked into filming.

Carefully picking up her laptop Louelle thus hurried herself over to the bar, her throat bopping as she gulped before the waitress returned and threw out a joke, causing the younger boy to flush before Louelle carefully edged in on the cyberpunk soldier, her voice low.

"Do I need to improvise, or do you have a copy for me?"

And as if a student suddenly given the honours of a teacher's attention after inattention Louelle shot up straight again, her eyes fixed on the waitress as she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Waffles, please" she spoke firmly, as if answering said imaginary teacher before realising that this was 1) unnatural and 2) she still had no money.

Drama classes were never her favourite, the reason as clear as demonstrated.

 

[Kuno]

JIN CHO

Law, the girl spoke a strange and twisted form of language. Jin's gaze was keen, attentive, but the snap of synapses firing off across her brain were wholly committed to deciphering her peculiar accent. It was nothing like she'd ever heard before.

Granted, the galaxy was a big place. Most everyone spoke Intergalactic Standard, and each planet and satellite station came with its own mixed bag of vernacular twists and turns. In school, they had learned that Earth had once held privy to hundreds of languages, thus leading to its sustained disunity. In space, many, many, lightyears away from their source of genesis, there were only two races: human and alien. Nice and simple, just how Jin liked it. Made shooting a lot easier.

Except the girl was no alien. Just a body out of time…and space standard English, apparently.

"Sister, I've got no idea what you're talking about," Jin replied with ease, a crinkle coming to her eye. It was never below the soldier to admit to what she didn't know. "A copy of what? My-"

She cut herself off as the owner swooped in, asking what they wanted to eat. Whatever they wanted, she said. Jin's eyes grew round as saucers, an echo suddenly reverberating in her empty stomach. Anything they wanted?

Jin didn't need a menu. "Another order of waffles. And a side of bacon, a side of sausage links…hash browns with cheese and onions, if you've got it. Eggs? Scrambled please. And uh…"

The soldier leaned forward, the images of food swimming before her eyes. "Canid fingers, please."

Ah, canid fingers. A luxury fresh from Eridanos. When colonists had first landed on the sun-drenched planet, nothing would grow in the rocky terrain. They staved off hunger with ship rations, but that only lasted for so long. Dwindling rations turned into hunger, hunger turned into desperation, desperation turned into…a stroke of genius, actually. Jin couldn't remember who thought of it first; someone on the expedition decided to cook a native canid over the spit like a savage. Nobody wanted any of it. Canids were big, dripping, hideous tentacled land creatures with so many eyes you'd think they would have seen the space blaster coming. They'd thought their colleague was going to die just from digesting its bloated, fried appendages.

Anyways. Now they sold canid fingers for an arm and a leg to the furthest corners of the galaxy. Sweet, meaty delight encapsulated within the ugliest limb known to man. Tasty, no?

Jin grinned at the girl. "If they have some, I'll share some with you. They're really good."

 

[Nemopedia]

Dynalight;Mate;

Louelle Huang

'Sister,' when said in English Louelle found it sounding… peculiar. Intimate even, despite the fact that back home she would call everyone aunty, or sister, depending on their age difference and actual relation. Yet, to hear it in English, it just felt weird and Louelle felt a little shaken, flushing even. A little embarrassed even, like one tended to feel when they hadn't mastered a language but were forced to speak. Even more so when she was offered a share of… Candy fingers? Canine fingers?

Unsure if she wasn't used to the pronunciation, or if she simply misheard, or if it was a word she didn't know, Louelle just hoped that the 'sister' had ordered 'candy fingers' and not canine because that would just be… weird.

But why candy fingers specifically? And why with waffles and eggs and meat? The questions swirled in Louelle's mind who wasn't sure how to react yet and realised she had to do so soon, just as much as she still owed an introduction.

"Louelle," she manages to get out, though unable to smooth out the wrinkle between her brow when she stares at the other, still trying to figure out if it was wise to say 'yes' to what she hoped were gummies in the form of fingers.

"So, where are you from?" Louelle continues her questions, wondering if somewhere maybe it was her own Parisian accent that made it hard for the other to understand her. Though, she did feel somewhat confident in her ability to speak English.

 

[Kuno]

JIN CHO

Jin studied Louelle. She didn't want to jump to conclusions – Law knew that her own first impressions had been less than stellar – but something about the girl seemed steeped in…elegance. Not in a haughty way, no, but an inexperienced way. She'd wager Louelle had never known a poor day in her life, and that was even before she'd heard her posh little name. Louelle – she'd never met a soul in the galaxy with a name like that.

But a rat like Jin wouldn't know highbrow society if it jabbed her in the eye.

"It's a bit complicated," the soldier began slowly. Truthfully, it was not, but Louelle was shaping up to be more Terran than she thought. "I was born on Mars but I'm not in that sector anymore. Haven't been for a few years. I was on Neptune clearing out the old research lab, and then I-"

Jin paused, looking back towards the front door. The howls of the Gorgonites still rang in her ears; she half expected to see their charge spilling through the entryway at any moment, but no. A steady, soft rain continued to dampen the gray skies beyond the windowpane.

"I backed through a door," Jin continued, flicking her eyes back to Louelle, "And next thing I know I appeared…here. Wherever here is, Law only knows. I can't tell if I fell through a wormhole, hit my head too hard, or if these are the side effects of bad tamario."

 

[Red Thunder]

the Diner​

"Nothing quite so good for breakfast as waffles, m'dear." Ma'am smiled. "I'll include a bit of protein, too. Your skinny bones need it."

Her eyes, shining but deep and clear as a freshwater lake in winter, turned to Jin. They watched her closely as the soldier rattled off the order. At the last item, her eyebrows raised.

"'Canid fingers', hm? Been some time since that was ordered here." She winked. "Lucky for you, got a shipment in just yesterday.

"You two relax at the booth. Moses is a rapscallion, but he's familiar enough if you have questions. Goes for all of you."

She gave Hale a glance as she said this before turning away.

The boy listened to the women's conversation, either content to do so or too embarrassed to interject. For his part, Moe sipped his coffee contendedly, watching them with keen interest.

"Yer safe, darlin'," he said, clearly noting Jin's concerned glance. He took another sip of joe. "Nothing comes through that door but what the Diner allows, though hel- uh, darned if I know what that actually entails. Maybe s'what happens if'n a body needs escape from danger."

"I didn't," Hale said, his voice quiet. His eyes were no longer down cast, but he did shift a bit in his seat as eyes turned to meet his at his words. "That is, not that I know of. I was wandering the woods, and my dragon had wandered off, and-"

"Dragon?" Eyebrows raised in surprise, Moe glanced back to Jin. "Dragons, research labs, loan sharks. Pretty outrageous, 'cept we're living it.

"'Bout you, Lou? How'd you get to the Diner?"

 

[Nemopedia]

Dynalight;Mate;

Louelle Huang

Mars, Neptune, the names of planets flew around Louelle's head as she struggled trying to connect them to a place, or an area in the world that could have been named after these planets. Villages and small towns tended to carry stranger names, Louelle knew, like how France had a place named 'Anus'. Or the amount of towns and villages that sounded like 'fuck' scattered over the world. Maybe American? They did have plenty of such mysterious names with stranger descriptions attached.

The mention of dragons didn't help, Louelle's own expression growing wider and startled as she eyed the door behind her and looked around the shop to see if any hidden cameras had snuck themselves in a corner. Had she somehow walked into a practical joke? Had he somehow managed to track her down on her way back to her aunt?

"A dragon as well," Louelle squeaked out in distraction, her eyes shifting over the corners and then trying to see if there was anything under the tables, only to lastly try to peek into the kitchen into which the patron had disappeared into, "or someone claiming to be one," Louelle continued somewhat strenuously, her fingers tapping on the table of the bar where she tried to get rid of her rising nerves, "didn't look much like a dragon at least, but neither do loan sharks look like sharks, why were you born on Mars anyway, wouldn't Venus be more fitting?"

She was rambling, Louelle knew, but she really was hoping that she could just usher the script, whatever script there was, towards an end as soon as possible. It would be nice at least, especially if that meant getting rid of any creepy stalkers that may follow her after exiting the door.

 

[Kuno]

JIN CHO

People squirming under her gaze was a strange sight for her. Sure, she was a hired gun; things that needed shooting got killed, and if a body needed thrashing, she had two amply sized mitts to box a sucker up. But Jin didn't really look intimidating; no one expected much damage from her until they felt her heavy hand clamp down on their arm. Other than that, she was a people's person. Calm, relaxed, chill.

Young miss thing across from her wasn't feeling it, though. The Diner, for all it's soothing ambiance, wasn't doing much of anything for Loulle looked liked. Funny; Jin wondered why she herself wasn't sitting on edge either. Maybe it was what the old man had said. She trusted his assertion that they were safe in this strange, alternate dimension of theirs.

Also, canid fingers. The thought alone made her forget about Gorgonite claws in her backside.

"A dragon, huh," Jin mused, not even batting an eye. Pointy Ears had mentioned it first; were they from the same...place?

Maybe not. Hale was relaxed while Louelle was jumpier than a sprat nose in a hot skillet.

Jin laughed a bit at the girl's question. "Aha, I get you. Men, Mars, woman--yeah. I don't know. My parents were Terran, so why they decided to move to that dusty sandbox escapes me. I had no qualms about leaving, believe you me."

Inch by inch, muscle by muscle, the soldier relaxed her posture, hoping to soften her image from what she presumed was reflected towards Loulle. She smiled a little.

"So we're all from different places, than. Different...years too?" She hazarded, eyes darting between the three of them.

 

[Red Thunder]

the Diner​

"I'd guess so."

Hale, based on his expression, was beginning to actively engage, and the corner of his mouth turned up in a hesitant smile. He was a bookish type: slight and small and anything save confident. Yet his eyes began to sparkle as his expression grew pensive.

"In my studies at our academy, I don't recall any branch of magic dealing with time travel- or even location travel like this. Portals and such have been theorized but never actually exec-"

"He can talk!" Moe laughed raucously, slapping his knee in his humor and spilling a bit of coffee on himself. Breathing out a curse, he began cleaning his pants as he continued chuckling. "Son, I believe you've said more'n the last five seconds'n you've said the whole time was just me'n you!"

The familiar smell and sound of sizzling bacon drifted from the kitchen, accompanied by the gentle touch of cooking batter and a sharp tang familiar only to Jin. Moe's eyes shifted to the kitchen.

"Glad t'see y'all opening up, though."

"Well. Yes, of course. Dragons are rare, even in my- world." The boy's eyebrows furrowed, and his hand went to his chill in thought. "They don't send people to other locations, however, and they certainly don't resemble humans- or elves, for that matter.

"Why did the dragon send you here, uh- Louelle?"

 

[Nemopedia]

Dynalight;Mate;

Louelle Huang

Terran? Dusty sandbox? Almost, almost Louelle thought herself to be stuck in a sci-fi setting, reminiscent of the newly released movie Dune, but then involving their actual planets, a space opera of sorts. But there was Hale and there was the other, and there was the mention of grass and dragons, which didn't fit within a sci-fi setting just as little as Louelle did in overall, for she was so, so…

The mention of magic swirled through Louelle's head as she stared at Hale long and hard, wondering if this was a wizard, or a magician, or whatever they called male magic-users. The mention that dragons don't resemble humans, or elves (?) confused her even more, as Louelle wondered if she was just dizzy herself from hunger, or if it was the information that was doing her in.

"21st century?" Louelle proposed, as if unsure of what year she came herself before correcting herself, straightening her posture, "2022," she finally said, remembering the year again, strange, for it definitely did feel like the world had paused itself right at this moment, just as much as it had speeded itself forward, like it had done in the past two years.

"The dragon, or he claimed to be one, yeah, definitely claimed, I don't know. He called me a witch, accused me of some curse," Louelle explained, realising how unhinged her story sounded and felt when she actually tried to explain it herself.

"Yeah, yeah, I definitely got be had by that man," she sheepishly admitted to herself, "it has been a long day, classes and all and then the assignment and then the dragon-boy-whatever," Louelle said, her shoulders slumping as she wondered where the food was staying, she could use the fast sugars.

"What do dragons look like anyway?" she questioned, leaning over the counter to throw a better look at Hale and Moe, "and are you a witch, or a wizard? Or magician or whatever they call a magic-user that doesn't sound like an insult? Same to you, do you use magic?" the female threw out her questions, first directed at the men before finger gunning at Jin, her eyes narrowing, Jin did somewhat have the build of that dragon-boy, however, muscular and athletic, so maybe even that? If that was possible, that is.

If this was a joke, if there were actual cameras set up, Louelle had decided to just play around with it and then sign a paper that said they weren't allowed to publicise the film on the grounds of her own privacy. She is European, she was protected. She knew that much at least.


text colour: #C2E1E8

 

[Kuno]

JIN CHO

"2022," Jin repeated, making sure she had heard Louelle right.

Even if she hadn't, she kept her mouth shut. She wasn't slow, and she was quick to pick up on situations regardless of her intellectual know-how. 2022 was more than a hundred and twenty years in the past for her. At the cusp of the Nuclear War, there'd been no space travel yet. No Intergalactic Standard, no confederacies, no knowledge of extraterrestrial life and no advents into the glorified field of space capitalism. Earth had remained the pinnacle of human focus, and it would continue to until, oh let's see, 2080? Give or take?

Dragons or magic, however, were never mentioned in the history tapes. This was shaping up to be more than just space-time continuum playing pinball with displacement. Some big brain a few years back had mentioned something about the multiverse being real. Of course, the higher-ups hadn't given much credence to it -- theories didn't really make them money -- but now? Now she...

Nevermind. This was above her paygrade.

It was hard not to laugh at the current conversation. Dragons and magic. This was a children's story gone wrong.

"Don't know a thing about magic, but maybe that's how we all got here?" Jin offered, a bit obtusely. "Ask the kid. I'm just a merc."

Were those canid fingers she smelled? Her brows raised a bit, her eyes darting away to the kitchen.