[Having semi-successfully managed to save Lei's sister, deal with Himmel's Cyborg Fetish Maids, and not get killed by the Exhibitionist Wind Demon, we find Togo, Herman, Lukas, and Ten (though the latter really has no choice in the matter) on the way to relax through copious intake of alcohol!] [Somehow, most likely not through the use of his natural charm, Togo has convinced the others to do their imbibing at his favorite bar, The Dancing Fiend, which he's described as a combination bar/club for members of the occult and supernatural communities.] [You're only a few blocks away now. Yay.] [Mini Start!] (Snicker. Did Herman do some laying on of hands to heal what little burning Lukas had While U Waited?) (Not that it seemed majorly damaging, but it did hurt! Fire is hot. ;_;) (If he asked. ;P) (Tell me about it! I got squished too!) (You did not get squished. Quiet, you.) (And of course he asked. He's not into pain.) * Togo leads the way through a series of winding alleyways. "Only a few blocks now." * Lukas walks! Yes he does. "I feel like we're going through a freaking maze." * Herman has his pipe with him! It's against one shoulder. "Probably are." It's a bit outta the way, but with the kinda clientele this place serves, that's necessary. * Lukas rubs the back of his neck. "Uh. Yeah." [You turn a corner, and hey, that must be it! The neon sign depicting a pitchfork-wielding demon doing a little jig is one tip-off, along with the line of myriad supernatural beings waiting to get in. You see, among other things, a were-deer, a floating skull, a large amorphous blob or two, and something with an awful lot of tentacles.] As long as it serves something alcoholic, I guess it doesn't matter... * Lukas trails off at the line. "... whatever I was thinking, I take it back." * Herman blinks at the creatures. "So, the point is that drunk'll make everything seem normal." [Directing traffic is a HUGE demon who could best be described as looking like Clayface from Batman:TAS, only gray and scaly. He's handling the line pretty quickly, occasionally confiscating various items from would-be patrons.] I've... never seen that when drunk. Or maybe I just can't remember seeing it. s'the best source of intel I've come across. Hear all sorts of interesting things talking to a drunk demon. And a couple of the regulars know pretty much everything that goes on. Plus, they stock good liquor. Bar's a bar. * Lukas shrugs helplessly. "Hey, if it works for you, Rambo." * Togo heads towards the door, waving at the large demon, which has to be about 8' tall, and about as wide. "Hey Al." [Al eyes Togo, grunts, and motions for him to head in... then notices Lukas and Herman and gvies out a sound that might be a chuckle, but sounds an awful lot like the rending of bones.] * Lukas winces slightly. "Might wanna get that checked out." * Togo pats Al on the shoulder as he walks by. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Finora'll have a field day." *motions for the others to follow him in* * Lukas follows and asks with a dubious tone, "... you speak stonegrinding?" * Herman shrugs to himself. "Can't be too much harder than Old English." Al doesn't talk much, but after a while you start to figure out what his grunts mean. [You walk through a narrow hallway... and there before you is what would probably be a fairly normal club, with a dance floor, pool tables, dart boards, a large bar, and some tables and booths. Only thing different is that the club is filled with supernatural beings of all shapes and sizes, along with more than a few humans.] * Lukas looks around at the clientele for a second, then rubs his eyes. "If I didn't have a repair job to do on Ten, I'd think this was a dream." Small smirk. "No dream is mean enough to make me have to repair Ten as part of it." * Herman scratches at the back of his neck. His pipe didn't get confiscated at the door. "Yeah, I bet." Don't sweat it. Most of the folks here want to coexist with people rather than eat them or kill them, and those that don't behave because of Al. I guess you can't beat a deterrent like that. * Lukas looks to Herman with a slight smirk. "So. Drink?" Fuck yes. [All of a sudden, Herman and Lukas find themselves being... hugged. Yes, hugged. One after the other. By someone tall, blue-haired, and most definitely female.] (Taller than Lukas' fairly towering 6'5"?) ( No, but tall for a woman. About 5'8. ) (I'm only 5'11"! I'm short!) * Herman twitches when he's hugged and turns slowly to see who it is. Maybe if he doesn't move too fast, it won't snap his head off. * Lukas looks down at the hugger as well, responding immediately with, "Uh. Thanks?" [The hugger is an extremely attractive blue haired woman wearing a halter top and what could be called a skirt but is closer to a belt. She also has horns, small wings, and a tail. "Togo, you brought friends! And it's my day in the pool!" She gloms onto Togo.] * Togo manages, through tremendous force of will, not to blush. "Pool?" * Herman doesn't blush. He just blinks as she latches onto Togo. "Friend of yours?" ["The pool on when you'd actually start interacting with your fellow human beings! I just won 500 pounds!" *gloms s'more*] Shoulda been smart enough to get a cut of that, Togo. * Lukas manages not to blush, probably because it's less embarrassing and more just weird. Then he looks over to Herman and the smirk returns. "If they have a pool on him bringing friends? Probably just... uh... sex buddies." His eyes flick over her complete lack of clothing. "Now, that drink." ... right. *sighs* Bella, this is Herman and Volt. *points to each in turn* Guys, this is Bella, waitress, retired succubus, and all around charming lass. [Bella disengages, and grins up at Togo. "Flattery will get you everywhere." *turns to the others* "Table for three? Follow me." She saunters off towards the far end of the bar.] * Lukas smirks. "Yes, I think we can all see the charms part." ( Her charms are, like, bigger than I am!) * Herman snickers and glances at Togo. "You sure she's retried? Maybe she still seduces and quit doing it for money or souls or whatever." (Like, totally!) (For sure.) * Lukas follows thhe tail. "Some habits are hard to break?" Oh, she does. But the retired part lets her be choosy, rather than having to sleep with every unwashed cretin who summons her. (I love this. Togo has to play relative straight man to Herman and Lukas.) (THE TABLES, ZEY ARE TURNED.) (AH AH AH AH AH.) (Mwahahahaha!) * Herman walks, too. "So, what, she can turn down a summoning?" * Ten is just along for the ride. Maybe she took her name out of the, uh, demon pages, I guess. ... Yeah, remind me to make sure I'm on the Do Not Summon list. Had some spells cast to keep from being summoned, I think. [Bella leads you to a table at the far end of the bar, out of the way of most of the hubbub and fairly quiet to boot. "What can I get you boys to start?"] * Herman has a seat after making sure it's not actually a chair demon or something equally bizarre. He sets the pipe to one side. "Just a beer, thanks." ["Any specific kind, or should I surprise you?" *grins*] * Lukas snickers. "Close enough. Take 'spells cast' and put in 'computers busted' and you'd have how I did it." * Lukas then sits down and looks to the woman. "A beer for me too. And I'm covering his." Thumbs at Herman. "As long as it's local, I'll take it." Screwdriver, as usual. * Herman nods at Lukas. * Lukas is busy shifting his satchel bag around to sit on his lap, Ten's head peeking out. He sighs slightly and picks her out of the bag fully, setting her on the table. She can describe her damage herself. [Bella waits for Herman to answer, gets bored, and walks off, tail swishing behind her. "Be right back!"] (I think he was answering in line with Lukas.) (Hence the nod.) (Us quiet types. Always misunderstood.) * Ten's wings got snapped off of different lengths and the new effect doesn't quite work with the leather and spikes motif of her current outfit. Herman should recognize his bracelet as being the origin of her belt, but it's been shortened to fit. Her long hair has been singed and her face is blackened and looks a bit melted. Yeah, she's gonna take some work. * Lukas frowns. "It's not that bad. The wings are replaceable normally anyway." What's with that thing, anyway? Some kinda mascot? * Ten flaps the stubs of her wings and then turns her head in an attempt to see them. "Lukas. I. Request. That. You. Replace. As. Soon. As. Possible." Her mouth actually opens and closes as she speaks. Oh god. Chatty 'bot. * Lukas rubs his head. "At least you're not panicking." He looks to Togo. "She's a project. She has a few useful toys in her, but mainly it's just a project. I guess mascot, too." He eyes Ten. "She's certainly concerned enough about her appearance." * Ten turns her head the other way to inspect that wing as well. * Lukas taps her on the head. "We'll get to replacing after the drinks. Try to remember that I shot the unlucky bastard over there a few days back." Small smirk. "Which is yet another good reason that I pack stun darts. Besides the whole 'murder' deal." Ah, okay. *pauses* Is there a stage of the project where she gets a life- sized body and a railgun? Nah, somebody else got the railgun. I hope not. She'd be a lot more difficult to clothe. [Bella brings the drinks! She then notices Ten, squeals, and climbs over Lukas to get a look. "How cute! What's her name?"] * Ten turns to face Bella and bows slightly. "Hello. My. Name. Is. Ten. It. Is. Nice. To. Meet. You." * Lukas oofs at being climbed over. [Bella awws. "Nice to meet you too, Ten!" *gets off of Lukas* "Nice to see a man secure enough in his masculinity that he isn't afraid to play with dolls." *winks; walks away*] She's getting better at handling the introductions, at least. * Ten turns to Lukas. "Thank. You." (NOW FIX ME!) (Ha ha.) * Togo lifts his drink up. "To not getting dead." * Lukas snickers and shakes his head. "They tell me that that's what the motorcycle is for." He picks up his beer and nods. "And only slightly burned." * Herman raises his own beer. "Amen to that." * Togo downs about half of his screwdriver, and leans back in his chair. "Been an interesting week." * Herman frowns and has a swig of his own drink before he says, "If by 'interesting' you mean 'fucked up', yeah." s'what interesting usually means in this line'a work. * Lukas takes a drink of his own and adds, "You're telling me? I'm a hacker and break-in artist, not a bleeding combat jockey supernatural exploder." He looks to Ten and adds, "And most of what I have is very breakable." We should really get you some armored clothing like I have. s'lightweight, sturdier than kevlar... saved my ass, along with other parts of my anatomy, on more'n a few occasions. * Lukas smirks and ticks off on his fingers. "Do they stop bullets to the hand or flamethrowers?" Then he takes a drink. Stop, no. But it takes some of the impact. * Togo adjusts the collar of his trenchcoat. "Plus, it's stylish." * Herman shakes his head. "I am not used to being shot at. Banish some voodoo spirit, fine, whatever, but Jesus." * Herman has another drink, then rubs at his eyes. * Lukas nods. "Yeah." A weak smile. "At least I stick with knockout darts, eh?" I'm ex-military, so I'm used to getting shot at. It's the voodoo spirits thing I'm still getting used to. * Herman eyes Lukas. "Yeah. But *she* didn't." * Lukas glances down to his hand. "Yeah. Well." That was a clusterfuck. We were undermanned to start with. If we hadn't been, I would've sent people with Herman, and he prolly wouldn't have been jumped in the first place. *downs the rest of his screwdriver* * Lukas sighs noisily. "At least she wasn't too twitchy. Blah blah hostage psychology." More drink. "Now if only I could find time to be a marksman along with the other stuff." Might be able to help with that. *pauses* Though my aiming method is a bit different than most. * Togo grins. "Always been a bit partial to spray'n pray weapons." * Lukas smirks. "Yeah, well, you're military. That's what you do." * Herman just shakes his head and goes about drinking his beer. [Bella comes by with refills when people start running low on booze.] * Herman gets a refill! Hooray! * Lukas rubs his head. "I really want to complain about having to go on the combat, but since you don't have any other technicians I get to pull double duty." He waves a hand in the air with a small grin. "Lucky me." Hopefully, the more we all work together, the more we'll be able to control the flow of the fights we get into, so we won't end up surrounded and taking fire from all sides. Uh... yeah. ... Yeah, I think we should just avoid the fire altogether. With the skills we have... illusionist, flyer, mage, gun nut... we can really force people to fight us on our own terms, rather'n just bumble into fights. * Lukas snickers. "With the bubbly girl and the stun darts as desperate support." * Togo rubs his neck. "Haven't quite figured out all the particulars, I'll admit." *works on his vodka* Not to be a killjoy, but I gotta tell you guys... if Asahara is involved in all of this, then things could get really, really ugly. They fight dirty. * Lukas drinks more, then chuckles. "I've got nothing they can hit at except me, so." A small smirk. "Nothing they could hit at and live, anyway." ( They'll kick your groins! They will! ) * Togo idly rubs the frames of his shades. * Lukas looks over to Herman with a grin. "So. How much more alcohol do you need before I'm forgiven?" * Herman puts his beer down after a drink. "I dunno. I'm gonna have to get pretty smashed." He eyes where Bella used to be. "Maybe drunk enough to think Togo's friend's cute." * Lukas snorts. * Lukas says with a joking tone, "I didn't think I was going to be buying out a brewery." More drink. I can see where you'd hafta be pretty soused to hit on Al, but Bella? Not your type, then? * Herman snickers at what Lukas said and has more beer. "Nope." * Togo shrugs. "She comes on strong, but she's a good kid at heart." * Lukas rubs his chin briefly and then says, "Strong is not what I'd call that. You're coming on strong when you do that in a full Victorian dress." That's downright insistent. At least it wasn't a frontal assault. * Ten reaches down and straightens one of the spikes on her boots. * Lukas eyes Ten, then shakes her head. "I really should just call her Fashiontron." At least she took to the bracelet-belt. If you did, I think Ashley'd hafta carry her around. * Ten stands back up and faces Lukas. "I. Would. Not. Respond. To. That. Name." * Lukas just grins and takes another drink. Yeah, I wouldn't, either. Well, you're not an AI obsessed with fashion. * Lukas points over at Togo. "Watch. Hey, Ten. How's the fashion on him?" Basic. Earth. Tones. Non-clashing. Correct. Seasonal. Variation. Dull. Lack. Of. Originality. * Lukas shrugs helplessly with a slight grin. "She's a harsh critic. You forget to hid your copies of Cosmo just once..." * Togo chuckles. "Well, it's a better review than I woulda gotten if I were still doing the all black thing. And at least she didn't knock the shades." Wrap. Around. Sun. Glasses. May. Come. Back. Into. Fashion. * Herman snickers. ... okay, I walked into that one. But gimme a break. They're function, not fashion. * Lukas laughs, initially, but then he gets a quizzical look. "Function? Sunglasses at night aren't really function." (They ARE a Corey Hart song! But not function.) * Togo falls silent for a few seconds before speaking. "Suppose you guys deserve to know." * Herman looks at Togo. "Know what?" * Togo fiddles with his glasses, producing a soft but audible *whirr* sound. After a few moments, he slides them down the bridge of his nose, revealing his eyes... or lack thereof. (Ugly ewy sockets?) (Just empty sockets?) ( Well, with scar tissue and, if your eyesight is good, metal pieces in the back of each socket. But yeah, empty sockets. ) * Lukas winces and says more quietly, "Jesus christ." * Herman looks blankly. "Fuck." * Togo slides his shades back up. "The Asahara bigwig we're after? His handiwork." * Lukas rubs his face. "Fun." Beat. "Wait, the fuck? Are you a blind monk-slash- military type or something?" What'd he do? He's a mage of some kind. Boiled my eyes in the sockets. *turns to Lukas* Shades plus directly into the optic center of my brain. Give me kind of a sonar vision. I see shapes, but no color or texture. But yeah, I can function without the shades to a degree. * Lukas winces again, then takes another drink to keep him from sputtering random stupid curse words. * Herman does, too. So reading is a bit of an issue, unless the letter are upraised. Though I have a nifty scanner thingee that translates to Braille. But even without the shades, I can hit a moving target at about 50 yards. Still, if you're gonna be counting on me in a fight, I figured you guys deserved to know at some point. * Togo downs s'more of his screwdriver. "Or maybe it's just the vodka talking." * Lukas nods slightly, then says after a few seconds, "Could be. Is that recent tech?" Beat. "I mean, I'm no crazy German doctor, but if it's been a few years..." Extremely recent. Based off some prototype military tech, specifically adapted for me. * Lukas nods slightly, then chuckles weakly. "Part of me is looking over at Ten and saying, 'The best they can do is sonar?' And the rest is still... egh. Yeah. Pain." Another drink. Sonar-like. I don't even claim to understand how it really works. But it does, and that's what matters. * Togo nods. "I can shoot, I can dodge, and I can not walk into oncoming traffic." *pauses* "Though I hope you'll understand my reluctance to drive." * Lukas nods. "Yeah, I get it." Beat. "Maybe get your military friends to look at the three scientist cyborgs you didn't kill. There's a man-machine interface for you." * Lukas then chuckles for no appreciable reason whatsoever! ( He's just a chuckly guy. ) * Lukas looks over to Herman and says with a small grin crossing his lips. "So. She looking any good yet?" * Herman peers. "Nope. Keep trying." [And so they drank until Herman went home with Bella!] (That's a lot of drink.) [Just kidding.] (Good, because then they'd never make it to the next session.) [And so they drank until they were right drunk, and went their separate ways.] [Mini End!]