{"submission_id":"1131140","keywords":[{"keyword_id":"743","keyword_name":"adventure","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"2920"},{"keyword_id":"60","keyword_name":"cat","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"110739"},{"keyword_id":"3283","keyword_name":"cheshire","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"329"},{"keyword_id":"117","keyword_name":"comedy","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"2077"},{"keyword_id":"44319","keyword_name":"contemporary","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"101"},{"keyword_id":"10159","keyword_name":"cyclops","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"379"},{"keyword_id":"2193","keyword_name":"fantasy","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"11602"},{"keyword_id":"123","keyword_name":"female","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"519972"},{"keyword_id":"2960","keyword_name":"golem","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"250"},{"keyword_id":"9390","keyword_name":"gorgon","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"144"},{"keyword_id":"1440","keyword_name":"human","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"46908"},{"keyword_id":"165","keyword_name":"male","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"639990"},{"keyword_id":"10129","keyword_name":"supernatural","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"375"}],"hidden":"f","scraps":"f","favorite":"f","favorites_count":"0","create_datetime":"2016-06-26 03:25:07.648655+02","create_datetime_usertime":"26 Jun 2016 03:25 CEST","last_file_update_datetime":"2016-06-26 03:20:37.730296+02","last_file_update_datetime_usertime":"26 Jun 2016 03:20 CEST","username":"Simoni","user_id":"279733","user_icon_file_name":"75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_large":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_medium":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_small":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","file_name":"1570177_Simoni_side_story_13_hunters_night_out.doc","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/1570/1570177_Simoni_side_story_13_hunters_night_out.doc","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/1570/1570177_Simoni_side_story_13_hunters_night_out.doc","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/1570/1570177_Simoni_side_story_13_hunters_night_out.doc","files":[{"file_id":"1570177","file_name":"1570177_Simoni_side_story_13_hunters_night_out.doc","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/1570/1570177_Simoni_side_story_13_hunters_night_out.doc","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/1570/1570177_Simoni_side_story_13_hunters_night_out.doc","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/1570/1570177_Simoni_side_story_13_hunters_night_out.doc","mimetype":"application/msword","submission_id":"1131140","user_id":"279733","submission_file_order":"0","full_size_x":null,"full_size_y":null,"screen_size_x":null,"screen_size_y":null,"preview_size_x":null,"preview_size_y":null,"initial_file_md5":"a8cece4928a3d2ebd68b12bb052bc86e","full_file_md5":"a8cece4928a3d2ebd68b12bb052bc86e","large_file_md5":"","small_file_md5":"","thumbnail_md5":"","deleted":"f","create_datetime":"2016-06-26 03:20:37.730296+02","create_datetime_usertime":"26 Jun 2016 03:20 CEST"}],"pools":[],"description":"Another story so fast? THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?! O_O;;;\n\nWell, anyways... This was just a goofy idea I had. I've been reading through my Simon R. Green collection again and one of his Secret Histories Books has a part where the main character, Eddie Drood, and several others are around a campfire sharing stories about their careers in the supernatural side of things.\n\nWell, I thought to myself \"why don't we do something like that?\" and so we did!\n\nHad a lot of fun doing this one, and my writing partner said he really enjoyed it himself. Its nothing big, no major battles or chaos or destruction, just the older characters in the story going to a bar and shooting the shit.\n\nMight have to do another one of these someday... Maybe do a secondary one with the younger kids back at the hotel.","description_bbcode_parsed":"Another story so fast? THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?! O_O;;;
Well, anyways... This was just a goofy idea I had. I've been reading through my Simon R. Green collection again and one of his Secret Histories Books has a part where the main character, Eddie Drood, and several others are around a campfire sharing stories about their careers in the supernatural side of things.
Well, I thought to myself "why don't we do something like that?" and so we did!
Had a lot of fun doing this one, and my writing partner said he really enjoyed it himself. Its nothing big, no major battles or chaos or destruction, just the older characters in the story going to a bar and shooting the shit.
Might have to do another one of these someday... Maybe do a secondary one with the younger kids back at the hotel.","writing":"Nelen sighs as he flops down at the table in the Wulfshead Pub, looking around at the others over the top of his coke (he didn't want to risk getting drunk with Al out and about in the city). After Loren had insisted he show her to the nearest bar it had turned out that the other adults in their group decided to come along. Sitting around the table in a large circular booth in the back of the Pub were Dawn, who refused to stay behind, Drusilla, who insisted that a cyclops baby could handle it's beer no problem, Alice, Aisha, Loren, and Nessa. Patli was still out somewhere in New Orleans, presumably running amok.\n\n\"I can't believe I let you drag me into this...\" he grumbles at Loren, rubbing the sore spot on his stomach as she knocks back another mug of whiskey in one go, \"I mean, there's some sort of supercharged Hyde on the market back in New Orleans and your first thought is go barhopping.\" he frowns at her.\n\nThe woman just grins back, \"Ach, be fair Nelen!\" she grins, elbowing him in the stomach and making him double over with his eyes watering, \"Ah dinnae expect ta go ta more 'n one! We just got threwn outta all th' others!\" she laughs.\n\nAlice smirks softly as she sits at the table, Nessa sliding her glass of wine over to her hand for her. She enjoyed going out and being social, but bars and other heavy crowd areas tended to make it a bit hard for her hearing and such to compensate for her blindness. \"Oh come on, it's nice to go out isn't it?\" she asks as Nessa nods, quickly kicking back a good pull from her own beer. \n\n\"Yeah, hell it's been ages since we just hung out a bit, let alone at a bar or something.\" Aisha nods, drinking from some fruity smelling cocktail that probably had two pages of instructions to make in the handbook. \"Besides we need it. We're making progress but things have been pretty rough. Between racist ghost memories, hulked up junkies, and the general ticking clock of a wild beast running loose back home, I think we're all getting a bit frazzled.\"\n\nDrusilla seems to agree, downing her entire pint in one gulp before motioning for more. \"Yea, you can't constantly be raiding and attacking. Sometimes you need to unwind, celebrate victories and mourn losses, and all that.\"\n\nNelen sighs, \"Fair enough, and at least this place isn't likely to kick us out because you took off your illusion bracelet.\" he comments, glancing at the gorgon bartender who was wearing a very thick pair of sunglasses over her eyes, \"Mind you... that wasn't getting kicked out so much as legging it while everyone was busy trying to revive that waitress who had a heart attack.\" he nods meaningfully to Drusilla. He'd long ago crafted a spelled bracelet that would give Drusilla the illusion of having two eyes rather than one huge one to make her appear as just a tall human rather than a cyclops... but it only worked so long as she was wearing it.\n\nDawn was holding a large glass of cream, lapping it up in a very cat-like way, as she smirks, \"At least we got a good laugh outta that one.\" she smirks. She was in her humanoid form, but she'd hidden herself as an animal in the other bars due to her still looking too young for them.\n\nDrusilla just giggles at that, sticking her tongue out before waving to the bartender. \"It was getting uncomfortable so I took it off. If you wanna restrain me in uncomfortable ways it should be more fun.\" she teases.\n\nLoren slams her mug back down, then grins, \"So, yer all pract'cally legends among th' supernaturals now yanno! Th' crew what broke one ah th' mundane blades! Ah've tangled with m' fair share o' beasties, but ah'm bettin' ye got some stories o' yer own too eh?\" she nods to the group.\n\nAisha laughs at Loren's comment, grinning a bit. \"Oooh legends, I like the sound of that, maybe if we bust another one up I'll be the most famous knight of my line after all...\"\n\nNessa smirks, nodding softly. \"Yeah, Alice and I have fought some pretty interesting things. Hey,\" she chuckles, slapping Alice's shoulder faintly. \"Remember that thing in Russia? The bear?\" \n\nAlice snorts, nodding at that as she sets her wine down. \"So we get sent to the middle of nowhere Russia, some little oil town has been dealing with 'bear attacks' lately. 'Cept, it's the dead of winter, right? There shouldn't be some roving bear out that far. Besides the bodies are all messed up but not EATEN or anything. So we go in and we talk to the locals for a bit, and none of this makes sense.\"\n\nNessa nods at that. \"They're talking crazy, about some great bear spirit that's cursed the land because of the oil rig, right? But this chunk of land has been digging oil since generations ago. If it is a nature spirit it's a super slow to react one. So we go into the wilderness to track this thing.\"\n\n\"Nessa does,\" Alice adds. \"I mainly just followed. The wind was so damn loud I couldn't hear the thing.\"\n\n\"Yeah, couldn't hear it right until it was on our ass,\" Nessa smirks. \"This thing isn't a bear, it's a godsdamn wendigo. I never heard of a Russian version of that, but apparently for good reason. This thing was twice the size of the one we went up against in Alaska, and instead of, like... ya know how they have kinda deer like features? No, this one had a bear skull on it's head, and its bone claws strapped to its arms. This fucker could use tools... Apparently some survey team got lost and... well this guy was the one that made it....\"\n\nNelen nods, fingering one of the claw-like scars on his side under his shirt, \"Yeah, Wendigo are a real pain in the ass.\" he nods.\n\nDawn grins, \"More like the side, right above your hip, in your case.\"\n\nNelen shakes his head, \"No, ass too. He got me right above my left thigh as I was trying to fall back, remember?\"\n\nDawn blinks, then nods, \"Oh riiiiiiiight, and you were limping for like a week.\" she smirks.\n\nNelen rolls his eyes, \"So how did you guys deal with him? I mean all I could do was get the hell back to the hotel and try to get the stuff together to set up some trap spells so I could lure the thing into the magical equivalent of a mine field and leg it before the first one went off.\"\n\nNessa smirks, \"Well like Alice said, this thing WASN'T eating the bodies. It was using them as bait. It figured why settle for some tiny population of a town of underfed workers when it could lure some fat outsider hunters in to come get the bear...\"\n\nAlice nods, \"It understood the concept of hunting. Like, it was willingly going hungry to wait for a bigger score, I've never heard of one of these things doing that before! I wanted to study it but... ya know we were the 'fat outsider hunters' that it wanted. So we run through the frozen wilderness for about a full day...\"\n\n\"I could barely do my blood magic, we're talking sub-zero temperatures here, taking my gloves off to carve myself meant risking frostbite, and this fucker wasn't bleeding more than a little bit when I cut him. So we just book it and do it old school.\" adds Nessa.\n\nAlice chuckles. \"In the old days a Roche had to fight a minotaur in some test of strength with a local giant tribe, no clue where they got a minotaur in Spain but hey. So he goes and he leads this thing on a day long run through its own maze, tires the thing out so he can kill it. That's what we do. We take the absolute worst possible path every time, over rough rocks, across fallen trees, through frozen rivers, the works. By the time the sun's coming up the next day this thing that had been starving itself hoping for a bigger prey was near collapsing.\"\n\nNessa laughs louder at that, downing the last of her beer. \"Course, we were too, I was near dragging Alice behind me the last hour... That's when we manage to find an old hunter lodge that had been left behind, a real hunter lodge not us kind of hunter. Still, it has this antique gun in it. You know elephant guns? Safari stuff? Thing's as big as my arm. So Alice keeps this thing busy while I get it and figure out how to load it up, and just when the sonofabitch is about to claw her head off, BOOM! I blow that thing's head clear off its shoulders.\" She grins triumphantly as Alice shakes her head, chuckling.\n\n\"Yes, she blew its head off, and blew the gun up too. How long were your arms and chest bandaged up again after that explosion, dear?\" she teases, making Nessa roll her eyes.\n\n\"Oh I'm sorry I saved your life in an inelegant way Miss French Ballerina...\" she sneers right back at her.\n\nLoren throws her head back and cackles at that, smirking, \"Ach dunnae give 'er ah hard time Frenchy! Ya dunnae expect ta be ah hunter without ah few nicks 'n scratches on yer pretty arms.\" she teases, flicking her hand, \"Aye, mah turn then. Lets see...\" she thinks. \"Aye, well this 'un is from ah while ago, afore you lot blew up th' castle. Back when Franklin' was runnin' th' show we were out after most anythin' wot had ah whiff ah magicks 'bout it and, aye, sometimes 'e forced us ta go after somethin' what wasn't harmin' anyone or wut was even livin' peacefully with th' mundies, but sometimes we wound up takin' down ah real nasty bastard.\" she nods and smirks.\n\n\"Ah remember this 'un time aboot eight, ten years anon...\" she taps her chin thoughtfully, \"Me 'n mah da, mayherestinpeace, were sent out ta Scotland ta investigate some rumors 'bout some wee 'uns goin' missin'. We was in ah 'otel in Edinburgh when all ah th' sudden there's all these loud police sirens 'n gunshots. Me da dinnae waist nae time, snatched up 'is sword 'n off 'e went like 'e was expectin' it, ah was still wee at th' time, not much older than th' wee birdie what be 'is sistah,\" she smirks and jabs Nelen, \"but th' clan's trainers could already tell ah' was one ah th' warrior wimmen types that crop up every so often so they sent me off ta 'prentice with me da like they did fer th' lads.\"\n\n\"Well ah sure as 'ell ain't waitin' around on th' old fart! Ah may ah've been a wee lass at th' time but ah was still a bloody Fullmoon!\" she grins and slams her mug down, shouting \"OI! SNAKEYFACE! WHO DO AH 'AVE TA FECK TA GET ANOTHER PINT?!\" as the gorgon frowns at her, then sighs and starts filling up a tray with fresh glasses. \"Anyway, ah was out th' window 'n down th' drainpipe outside, climbin' like ah monkey down ta th' streets. It dinnae take long ta find where they was goin' either. Big bloody trail all along the roadside, someone got sloppy...\" she smirks.\n\nAlice smirks, nodding \"Hard to keep an eager hunter kid away, I know Nessa and I were Hell on our parents who wanted us to ease into things,\" she smirks. \n\nAisha just snorts, nodding \"Yea, bit of the opposite for me, mom couldn't wait to get me learning the old ways and I fought tooth and nail to be like the 'normal kids'...\" She chuckles, shaking her head softly. \"So, what was it then? Sounds like it was something pretty nasty to get that kind of 'sloppy' and get that much attention...\"\n\nShe smirks, \"Aye, it was. See, aboot five 'undred years anon there was this cannibal clan in th' area, out by th' seaside, headed by ah nutter named Sawney Bean. Now th' hunters ah th' time thought they'd gotten him 'n his nasty clan, 'ung 'em up by their necks 'n stomped alla th' wee 'uns inta th' dirt... but ah guess they musta' missed ah few.\" she shrugs, \"It was 'un ah their descendants, all twisted 'n misshapen from 'ow they spent their time buggerin' their sisters 'n brothers.\" she nods, \"Ah know ye may think Clan Fullmoon did that sorta stuff, but nae. Th' old matriarchs made sure that marryin' within th' Clan were forbidden an', well, any time one ah th' lads killed ah' pack o' nasties 'e had no problem findin' ah date that weekend.\" she smirks.\n\n\"Anyhoo, if this freaky bastard was one ah' Sawney's get, it had ta mean that there was more. Sawney's clan was ah buncha cannibal loons, but they was human. They dunnae live fer five centuries.\" she nods. \"Well, 'e escaped th' coppers, but me 'n da were waitin'. Since ah was wee ah put on an act fer the guy, makin' meself look all 'elpless 'n tasty fer him... pain in me arse it was, but da insisted. When 'e drew close me da kicked out the door 'e was hidin' behind 'n clubbed 'im over th' head with th' flat o' his sword until he stopped kickin', then we made 'im take us back ta 'is 'ome.\" she smirks, \"Turns out it was th' same cave by th' ocean. Guess inbreedin' means ya aren't great at tryin' new things.\" she shrugs.\n\n\"Anyhoo, we came prepared. Th' Scots 'o five 'undred years anon did ah good enuff job with th' stuff they 'ad, but obviously they missed somethin'. Well, say what ya like 'bout Frankie, 'e was ah right bastard make no mistake, but 'e made ah point ah doin' everythin' 'e could ta modernize th' clan 'n get us less reliant on magicks. Th' Scots back then did good, but they dinnae have incendiary grenades.\" she smirks. \"Me 'n da lobbed about five apiece inta th' cave an' after that it was jus' ah matter 'o cuttin' down whatever ran out afore it could make it ta th' water 'n extinguish isself.\" she laughs.\n\nAlice chuckles, nodding as she sips her drink. \"As flawed as Franklin was, my family was quite happy to hear Fullmoon was joining many of us in the modern age at least.\" she teases. \"Impressive, though, those cannibal clans can be a real pain to deal with, like rats...\"\n\nAisha snorts at that, smirking. \"Oh yeah, they're impressive, but still pretty much humans with gross taste. You wanna talk rats? Couple years back in New York there was this problem. See there was an issue in the amateur modeling community with this one skeevy company, Starmaker Enterprises. They were gross, one of those places out of a cheesy porno where you go in for a bikini suit and all of a sudden the camera man just so happens to mention they also do nude modeling and all. Skeevy, but not really DANGEROUS, they paid ok and did at least keep their word about exposure and all, ya know? Never worked for them myself but they weren't the WORST place for a young model to start.\"\n\n\"Anyway things get screwy back just a few months before I met you lunatics. All of a sudden Starmaker goes from skeevy to dangerous. Girls start going to their shoots and some of them don't come back, you know? Cops check it out of course but nothing connects them, just a sad coincidence they say. I think fine, whatever, not my issue right? That is until this girl I was rooming up with, Rachel, she goes to a shoot they're doing and suddenly she's not coming back. Now I'm not a big fancy hunter like some of you, but I know when shit's fishy and I have a few tricks up my sleeve from home...\"\n\nShe chuckles, shaking her head. \"I go to their main photo studio, this just run down shithole. We're in The Bronx, see, so shitholes aren't super unique, but this was especially run down looking. I go in, do a little stuff, and suddenly the place is going nuts with ghosts. Not human ghosts, though, rat ghosts, musta been THOUSANDS of them...\"\n\nNelen raises his eyebrow, \"Rat ghosts? I think I heard something about my great grandma Eliza getting involved with that sort of thing in Romania when she was a girl. Said some local helped her, but Eliza apparently didn't get her name. She said she was pretty sure the girl wasn't human though.\" he shrugs, \"Never did find out all the details on that.\" he comments, though Dawn just grins and keeps drinking her cream.\n\nLoren nods though, \"Aye, ghosts are ah right pain in th' arse. Ye cannae cut them with ah normal sword. Any time we ran inta them Frankie threw ah right fit 'cause we [i]had[/i] ta use magic ta sort 'em out. Steel ain't nae good 'gainst th' spirits 'n science be oot 'cause ah that arsehole in New York demandin' some stupid arse 'patent fee'. Venky-whatever'isnamebe.\" she smirks, knocking back another mug in one shot and shouting for a refill.\n\nAisha smirks, finishing her own drink. \"Oh these weren't malicious ghosts, they were just, ya know, dead rats. See that's the thing about my magic, I'm not a necromancer proper, unless I want to be. I just pull the veil back and let things unfold in the light. These rats just skitter and squeak around, but they're harmless, most seem just kinda confused, like 'hey what's going on'. I see they're all coming from this place's dark room, though so I figure hey, there's the target. I'm expecting... I don't know WHAT I'm expecting honestly, but I sure as hell didn't expect that...\"\n\nAisha shudders a bit. \"I kick the door open and there's this guy, guy who runs the studio. I'd seen him at things before, heard friends talk about him, always figured he was a harmless creep, right? Whenever he'd get a cameraman to suggest more 'racy' pictures he'd always clam up all shy like it's not his idea. Harmless little wimp, right? Well somehow this harmless wimp is now ten foot tall, covered in black fur, with jagged yellow teeth and a big tail that whips around like it's made of rope. This fucker was a wererat! He was abducting women from his studio and infecting them to make them his 'brides'. He's got his own little harem in the sewers apparently.\"\n\nAlice snorts loudly at that, setting her drink down. \"A wererat... I've heard of those in Paris at times. As funny as they are those things can be quite deadly.\"\n\n\"You're telling me,\" Aisha laughs, \"Like I said this guy's got twice my height at least, and those fangs look like they could take a subway car apart. He turns at me and he lets out this horrible shriek and just CHARGES. Naturally, I'm a bit freaked out. Like I said I'm not much of a hunter here, I spent most of my life AVOIDING this nonsense. So I'm not a hundred percent what to DO here frankly, other than 'run like hell'. Make matters worse as you all know I bailed on training before finishing up, I don't have 'keys to the gate', as it were. I can do some basic magics, but no calling up on loa aid.\"\n\nShe shakes her head, smirking. \"So me and the rat fight for... keerist it must have been a good hour, I'm too untrained to do much to him, he's too freaked out at being busted to do more than snap and flail at me, it has to be the ugliest 'hunt' ever, just two idiots flailing around hoping they get lucky. Thankfully I've always been a fairly lucky idiot. I get him back in the darkroom and he slams into a table, chemicals go all over him and I'm like 'well, I'm pretty sure a shit ton of fire kills anything' and thank god I'm a smoker, right? It cost me one of my favorite lighters but I chucked it at the guy and he goes up like a roman candle, whole place burns down in less than an hour. Rat problem solved, right?\"\n\nShe sighs, shaking her head. \"Nope, see like I said he's not EATING these girls, he's BITING them... I go down into the sewers, cursing angrily about the entire situation, and there's this room with about six girls counting Rachel, all ratted up just like him.\" she sighs again, looking up. \"Well I'm sure you proper hunters can all make the case that sometimes you have to do the hard stuff, and even the innocent victims can't be treated different or whatever, but I couldn't exactly torch these girls too. I give ‘em the speech, I'm sure you've all got some version of it too. The big 'you get one fresh start, don't fuck me here or I'm coming after you' one?\"\n\nShe frowns at that, looking at her empty glass. \"That was when I started 'working', ya know, going after my ancestor's relics and all... I saw how sad those girls were, how fucked their lives were and thought ‘someone should have been protecting them, the cops can't handle this’, you can't exactly go around saying 'hey watch for ratmen' and look sane but... ya know... someone's gotta be there looking out for people like them. Monster or not they were scared kids. So I help them out, tell them the 'rules' about being like they are so they can keep safe and not be dangerous to others and just... let ‘em go...\"\n\nNelen nods, glancing down at one of his bandaged hands, \"Been there.\" he mutters.\n\nLoren shrugs, \"Ach, ah haven't. Ah was raised ta be ah hunter.\" she smirks, \"But... ah ken what ya mean aboot th' other part. Sometimes th' monsters ain't actually doin' anythin' wrong... but when yer part o' ah hunter family 'n ya got someone in charge what wants ta kill anythin' like that...\" she shrugs, then knocks back her beer, \"Oi! Nelen! 'ow bout you lad? Yer body's got more scars 'n half th' lads back in Ireland, ya gotta have ah few good 'uns!\" she grins.\n\nNelen frowns at her, \"Yeah, and some of the bigger ones came from you or one of 'the lads back in Ireland', remember?\" he snorts.\n\nLoren rolls her eyes, \"Ach, come ON boyo! Ah told ya we dinnae have any choice at th' time! Franklin woulda cut down anyone that so much as looked at 'im funny!\" she nods firmly. \"Now pick ah story 'n get talkin' afore ah rip yer damn shirt off 'n pick out one ah th' scars fer ya ta tell us about meself!\" she nods, Dawn snorting a bit of her drink at that.\n\n\"FINE!\" he snaps, then takes a breath, \"Fine.\" he grumbles. The group might notice that his eyes didn't go red at that, Merihim apparently still playing possum. \"This one was right after I first met Al and learned how to control Merihim.\" he nods, holding up a hand and flexing his fingers. \"Incase any of you didn't know yet, these aren't just to hide the sigils I had to carve into my hands when I made my pact. They're spelled so that Merihim can't use his full power. He can still possess me if he wants, but unless I'm in the drivers seat the bandages can't be torn off.\" he nods. \"Dawn was still really young too, about...\" he thinks, \"Five or six. She was still trying to figure out how to turn human and, well, she never did get the hang of it.\" he nods.\n\nDawn rolls her large yellow eyes, \"Yeah yeah... fine... This thing where I turn into some kemonomimi otaku wet dream here? That's not what this spell is [i]supposed[/i] to do. It should let me go all the way human and back, but I just can't... get the hang... of it...\" she screws up her face and concentrates, and one of her ears shrinks ever so slightly, then snaps back to normal as she takes a breath and relaxes, \"Yeah, its like trying to stretch a muscle in someone else's body.\"\n\nNelen nods, \"Anyways, we were still in the Nightside at the time. Al had us running errands for him in between lessons, this was before we knew he was a demon mind you, and one of his errands had us going to the Mammon Emporium for some stuff he needed for a spell.\"\n\nNessa smirks at that, \"Oh fun, whatever could an ancient demon need from the emporium to cast a spell. I'm sure it's something harmless and super common to find and he just wanted you to go there because it's a fun trip...\" she teases, motioning the bartender over for another round.\n\nNelen shrugs, \"Actually, most of it was. He had a really well stocked sanctum, but it was the ones for the more common spells that he kept running out of because they'd get used up since he'd need them every few days or so. Nothing spectacular, but Al had set himself up as a shopkeeper running 'Alphonse's Fine Sorceries and Alchemical Shoppe'. Not sure why, I think he was just killing time while waiting for new marching orders from Hell. Anyway, he needed stuff to set up things like anti-theft curses that would make a shoplifter's hand wither and fall off if he made it past the threshold without paying, alarm spells that would go off if someone tried to pick the lock. Heaven and Hell aren't able to act directly in the Nightside, so he actually needed to rely on norma... well, more standard things.\" he nods.\n\n\"Anyways, Dawn was still going nuts about having two legs and thumbs at the time and was insisting on being in her human-ish form as much as possible, so it was also a trip to get her something to wear in that form for decency's sake. That and I was getting sick of pushing kiddie fiddlers who kept trying to nab the little naked cat girl into traffic.\" he smirks, \"Anyways, we got her set up with something to wear...\"\n\nDawn grins, \"Overalls and a teeshirt, with a hole for my tail since non-humans are normal in the Nightside. I got those sneakers that had lights in the heels too.\"\n\n\"... yeah, she kept trying to get them to light up. Had the batteries worn out in two weeks. Anyways, as we're going to the apothicary's to get the stuff on Al's shopping list we start hearing screaming coming from the main part of the mall and it doesn't sound like the usual sort of screams. I mean every once in a while someone is stupid enough to piss off Razor Eddie or someone doesn't pay their taxes and Walker sends around a squad to make an example out of them, but this one is louder and coming from more than one direction...\"\n\nAisha raises her eyebrow at that, \"Oh yeah? What was it?\" she asks, genuinely having no clue consdering with the Nightside it could be anything at all from a gang fight to a timeslip dumping out a live tyrannosaurus rex.\n\nNelen smirks, then nods to Drusilla, \"Remember what I used to get Harry to spill the beans on that Hyde?\" he asks, \"Yeah, Dawn and I run out into the hallway and there's these big black scarab beetles pouring out of all the A/C vents along the walls, damn near a sea of the things and each one as big as my fist. Dawn all but clawed my shirt to pieces getting up on my shoulders. She was so freaked out she forgot she could teleport!\"\n\nDawn hisses, blushing as she goes back to her drink.\n\n\"Anyways, the beetles left me alone, guess they could tell that making me bleed wouldn't be a great idea... but then the A/C system started having it's time of the month or something and blood starts pouring out of all the vents. Made a huge mess. As I'm wading ankle deep through the damn things, good thing I favored construction boots for footwear back then, I see Harry Fabulous heading straight for the exits. Not unheard of given the situation, but Harry was always a sneaky little bastard and he'd be more likely to join in on the looting that was starting up while everything was going nuts than trying to escape. Something stank so I started up after him, I think he just figured I was going for the exits too, and as soon as we're safely outside I tell Dawn to get him.\"\n\nDawn grins wide at that, \"Childhood trauma with a big dose of spiders.\" she nods.\n\n\"Yeah, I dunno what exactly he saw, but he let out this squeal like a stuck pig and was curled up on the ground in five seconds. I rifle through his pockets and he's carrying some old Egyptian necklace, a big gold and jade chain with a huge emerald scarab beetle set in gold. While the pyramids have mostly been picked clean theres always some secret room or 'real' tomb that the mundanes couldn't get inside of and I'm guessing that's where Harry found that one. I took it back to Al's with us and he identified it as belonging to a pharoah named Djoser from the third dynasty. We handed it off to one of the customers heading that way and as far as I could tell it made it's way back to his tomb. Some things are best just not fucked with. If it starts out with plagues of beetles and blood you can bet it'd get a lot worse before it got better.\" he nods.\n\nDrusilla snorts, nodding, \"Wow, impressive there. No offense but this is why my people have no interest in magic, far too easy to snowball...\"\n\nShe smirks wider at that, \"SPEAKING of snowball...\" she teases, \"Did I ever tell you the one about when I fought a whole tribe of Orcs? My clan was up in Italy, up north where the mountains are, and I guess we wandered into Orc turf because suddenly we've got the whole lot of them surrounding us yelling about desecrating their land and all. Well luckily us and Orcs share the same general concepts of honor and all, so we all agreed that there'd be a test of strength for who gets the area. Of course they think it's unfair to fight a full grown Cyclops, but luckily for them I was there and this was a couple years ago when I was just starting to get into my 'leadership role' and all, so I happily volunteered to take them on. then I decided to say even a young Cyclops was stronger than any Orc, so the only real honorable test would be the entire tribe against me...\"\n\nDawn and Loren both cackle at that one and Nelen rolls his eyes, \"Yeah that sounds like you. Didn't think there were any orc tribes left in the mundane world though. Thought they all took off to Arcadia.\" he comments, tilting his head at her.\n\nLoren shakes her head, \"Nae, maybe afore, but now that you lot busted up Frankie's sword an' got all that magick all o'er everythin' they's startin' ta make ah comeback. Mostly really outta th' way places. Siberia 'n suchlike. Th' clan be keepin' ah'n eye on 'em, makin' sure they behave.\" she nods. \" 'course, that woulda been afore that, but they still had ah few holdout tribes.\"\n\nNelen raises his eyebrow at her, \"And mundanes never came across them?\" he asks.\n\nLoren smirks, \"Aye, they did. It just always got put down ta bear attacks tho.\"\n\nDrusilla shrugs at that, \"Not sure what these guys were doing camped in the mundane world, but soon enough I was fighting off the whole lot of them. They were good, too, still needed a good handful of them on me at once to really sweat, but still, they were tough, and persistent. ‘course while we're fighting the tribe and clan are talking and drinking and getting’ to be friends, as we do, and things are actually going pretty well between us. I'm putting a hurting on them but not embarrassing them, we look tough enough to stand up to them without genuinely hurting their pride, win-win, right?\"\n\nShe laughs at that, shaking her head. \"Then I hear this roar, and the ground and snow start shaking, and suddenly from this huge hut I THOUGHT was the chief's. Turns out it wasn't, and out comes a pissed off Ogre, roaring and charging at me, you know, being part of 'the tribe' and all...\"\n\nLoren lets out a whistle at that and Dawn's ears perk up.\n\n\"Well, that fits.\" nods Nelen, \"Ogres are technically fae, just really big nasty ones. Could be that getting one in their tribe is how they were going to get into Arcadia, or maybe they were just on a hunting trip with one.\" he comments.\n\nDrusilla nods, \"Yeah that makes sense. Didn't exactly ask him what his deal was before I went flying across the mountain, though. Still, couldn't exactly give up! So I run back at him and we get to going at it. He was wild too, guy even got in a few bites on me!\" she laughs as she leans over, pulling her shirt up to show a rather jagged looking bite mark on her left side clearly from a large creature. \"That's how I got that one there. Anyway we're fighting, I pick up this hunk of tree and brain him with it but he barely even stumbles. I figure the only way to beat him is, ya know... toss him off the mountain. So I bait him, taunting him and moving around a bunch. I get to the edge, where the mountain starts to slope, and I lure him into a charge.\"\n\nThe cyclops slaps the table at that, sending everyone's drinks rattling. \"BOOM! He runs at me, I move, kick him in the ass, and down he goes. Guy looked like a yelling avalanche by the time he hit bottom he rolled down so much rock and snow!\"\n\nNelen raises his eyebrow, \"I was wondering what the hell that bite mark was from.\" he nods, \"I just assumed you'd pissed off a troll or something.\" he shrugs.\n\nLoren is laughing at the idea of a screaming avalanche herself, then lets out another scream for more drinks.\n\n\"So, anybody else got one?\" asks Dawn, grinning.\n\nAlice grins, \"I think I got one to beat you all...I ever tell you about the time I fought a dragon?\"\n\nDawn stares at her, \"Bullshit.\"\n\nLoren raises her eyebrow, \"Yer fulla it lass. Th' wyrms are extinct.\" she adds, nodding at Dawn's words.\n\nNelen shrugs, \"Well... not entirely, but there aren't any left in the mundane world.\" he nods.\n\nAlice just keeps grinning, \"Swear to God on my eyes, I fought a dragon.\"\n\nLoren snorts, \"Aye, yer eyes that th' fae lord gobbled up.\" she smirks over her beer, \"And yes, our clan knows about yer deal with 'im.\" she taunts. There always was a bit of a rivalry between the Roches and the Fullmoons. Their families were, after all, about as different as could be. The Roches were all cultured and elegant, like their fae lord, and came off as French nobility (which they kinda are) whereas the Fullmoons were all bear-like men and clever old witches, much more blunt but every bit as effective.\n\nNelen sighs, \"Loren, we're in the Wulfshead. The truce, [i]remember[/i]?\" he says meaningfully, nodding towards Emet, the bouncer. The bouncer was, as always, a gigantic man who dwarfed even Drusilla. He was also, strictly speaking, not alive. A massive golem made of hard-baked clay, a glowing word written in Hebrew upon his forehead bringing him to life. He couldn't be seduced, he couldn't be intimidated, and not even a cyclops's strength could so much as chip his body. For reasons unknown to most, he wore a black XXXXL teeshirt bearing the legend \"Emerald City of Ozzfest '96\".\n\nShe sighs, \"Aye aye, not like ah wanna have ta find some other pub in town that ain't covered in ah buncha voodoo bullcrap.\" she rolls her eyes.\n\nAlice just smirks at her, \"That's why swearing on them is so serious, my fair Irish lass…\" she giggles, \"If I get those back my entire family line stops being Hunters.\" she winks playfully, lowering her glasses to make sure Loren saw them and her white cataract-covered orbs, \"Jealous that a Roche fought something a Fullmoon hasn't until little Simoni had her little goddess fueled trip in front of one?\" She grins, clearly enjoying needling Loren about it.\n\n\"I'll make you a bet, I have proof that I fought a dragon as well as a fantastic story, so if at the end of my story you still doubt me, I'll pay for not just this tab, but the ones we had to rather flee from getting here.\" she giggles at that, grinning still, \"But if I win then not only do you have to admit that a Roche did what a Fullmoon never did and stood against a dragon, but also you're in charge of handling all of those.\"\n\nLoren smirks, \"Hah, not bloody likely Frenchie.\" she snorts, \"Ah Fullmoon ain't ever gonna make any wagers nae bets with someone Faetouched as ye.\" she smirks, \"... 'sides, ah dunnae have nae money.\" she shrugs, chugging down another beer.\n\nNelen sighs, \"... you spent it all? Really? Jeanne gives you guys at least a twenty grand budget when you go international.\" he mutters. \"What the hell did you spend it o-\" he starts to ask as Loren lets out another loud belch, then he frowns, \"Nevermind, stupid question. Go ahead Alice.\"\n\nAlice snickers, \"Well lucky I feel like sharing the story anyway. So! There I am in Provence with Nessa, there's been trouble with local farmers, vast amounts of livestock just vanishing, that kinda stuff. So we track the source down to this cave in a hill overlooking most of these farms, pretty obvious, right? The place is a damn graveyard of animals, bones bleached white, every scrap of meat torn off them, and the smell... like a gas leak, but stronger. More potent...\"\n\nNelen nods, \"Yeah. Depending on the dragon it'll smell like a chemical sewer half the time.\" he mutters. Alyzya and Kyrzar didn't, but they were Arcadian dragons and were more the magical ideal for what a dragon could be rather than what most Earthbound ones were, basically a great big lizard.\n\nAlice nods, \"Mhm, that's what got us on edge first. Tons of food, foul chemically smell, cave lair. So we go deeper in, ready for a fight, and there we see it. A great wyrm of a beast, with ruddy red scales and golden frills around its neck, and shiny white claws that could easily tear us in half without effort...\"\n\nNessa speaks up at that, smirking, \"It was also about the size of a great dane... it was a young dragon's first lair...\"\n\nAlice waves her hand dismissively, \"Still a dragon!\"\n\nLoren snorts, \"Hah. Thats all?\" she asks, \"Ye fought ah wee hatchy?\" she sniggers, \"Oh, an' ye were wrong Frenchy. Clan Fullmoon has slain ah dragon afore.\" she smirks.\n\nNelen begrudgingly nods to her, \"Its true. Stephy told you about those dragons that he got the island for remember? Well, they were sealed in the Mundane Blade by Cillian Fullmoon back around nine hundred AD.\" he admits.\n\nAlice smirks, \"Fair enough, though we didn't have a walking magic war crime to help us, at the time.\" She teases \"And a young dragon is still a very powerful being!\n\nNessa nods, \"Mhm, especially if she catches you pocketing one of her jewels you think 'feels valuable...'\" she frowns, throwing a glare at Alice, who just laughs softly.\n\n\"Regardless! The beast attacked! She was a powerful fighter! Quite adept at the flame arts too! We fought with it, I even took one of its teeth!\" she grins as she leans to her cane, unscrewing the top to reveal a hidden compartment, tipping it over to let a still shiny, razor sharp, tooth clatter on the table.\n\n\"And,\" Alice continues, \"she got a blow on me too…\" she adds, pulling her sweater up to reveal a rather vicious looking burn along the entire right side of her chest, the telltale black veins visible that usually came with dragonfire burns.\n\nDawn tilts her head, \"Woah...\" and even Nelen, with all his scars, looks impressed.\n\n\"Huh, so that wasn't from when you two went up against my Uncle that time? I think Stephy told me that he grabbed you by the neck and used you as a shield when Nessa tried to throw her flames at him or something?\" he asks.\n\nLoren herself shrugs, muttering something about her having some just as impressive ones.\n\nAlice nods, putting her sweater down, \"That was on my back, got that mostly healed up. Can't fix dragon fire though,\" she chuckles, \"Anyway we eventually subdued her and hey, we weren't going to kill a kid that's just trying to make her own home. So we made some contacts with our... benefactors... and arranged for her to join one of the few remaining dragon families in Arcadia.\"\n\nNelen tilts his head, \"Huh...\" he nods.\n\n\"Aww, couldn't bring yerself ta hurt th' wee thing eh?\" sneers Loren, then slams her mug down, \"OI! HISSY! HOWSABOUT ANOTHER ROUND OVER 'ERE!?\" she hollers.\n\nThe gorgon's head snaps around and she glares at Loren behind the thick dark lenses she's wearing over her eyes, then looks towards the door, points at the table, and whistles. There's a sudden grinding sound as Emet's head slowly swivels around to focus on the group.\n\nNelen winces, \"I... think thats last call for us.\"\n\nDawn's ears fold back and her tail fluffs, \"Yeah, oh dear lookit the time and the big clay monster that my magic eyes won't affect.\"\n\nLoren just smirks, getting to her feet and cracking her knuckles, \"Oho! Siccin' yer pottery on me eh? Well ah-\"\n\nNelen cuts her off, \"DAWN!\" he yells.\n\nDawn pounces, locking eyes with Loren, \"Pleasedon'tkillmeforthiskay?\" she grins, and then big bright eyeball flash as Nelen throws the woman over his shoulder, tossing down a wad of bills on the table as the group runs to the exit, Loren making blubbering noises and scrabbling at her hair and shirt as she's carried out of the bar while they beat a hasty retreat.\n\nAlice smirks as she nods to Nessa, who tosses some money on the table. \"Sorry!\" Nessa calls as the rest of the group quickly dart to the door, Drusilla downing the last of her drink before tossing the glass aside on her way out.\n\nOut in the alleyway Nelen sighs, heading along the path back to the hotel, Dawn shifting her form back to her animal one and teleporting up onto his unoccupied shoulder. \"Well, that could've gone better. I swear to gods if I get banned for that...\" he grumbles, the red haired woman whimpering and flailing weakly as he carries her off. \"If anyone asks, she's drunk as hell and we're taking her home. Nobody would doubt that from her smell.\" he nods to the others.\n\nAlice nods, smirking softly, \"Yes it definitely won't be a hard act for her to play…\" she teases, patting the passed out woman's head as Drusilla helps Nelen support her. \n\n\"This was fun, though,\" Nessa adds, \"We should do it again sometime...\"\n\nHe nods, then glances at Loren and raises an eyebrow, \"Dawn, the hell did you make her see? I mean this is the kind of girl who I've known to fight a whole ghoul nest with nothing but a piece of bent metal.\" he comments.\n\nThe Cheshire nods, \"Well... I figured that she's probably not going to be too intimidated by the normal stuff... so she thinks that she's at an Arcadian formal party where she is literally physically incapable of misbehaving.\" she nods.\n\nNelen looks at her again and if they listen closely they can hear her whimpering, \"... gottagetoutofthisball...\" over and over.\n\nHe looks at Dawn, then back at her, \"... sometimes you scare the hell out of me cat.\" he nods.\n","writing_bbcode_parsed":"Nelen sighs as he flops down at the table in the Wulfshead Pub, looking around at the others over the top of his coke (he didn't want to risk getting drunk with Al out and about in the city). After Loren had insisted he show her to the nearest bar it had turned out that the other adults in their group decided to come along. Sitting around the table in a large circular booth in the back of the Pub were Dawn, who refused to stay behind, Drusilla, who insisted that a cyclops baby could handle it's beer no problem, Alice, Aisha, Loren, and Nessa. Patli was still out somewhere in New Orleans, presumably running amok.
"I can't believe I let you drag me into this..." he grumbles at Loren, rubbing the sore spot on his stomach as she knocks back another mug of whiskey in one go, "I mean, there's some sort of supercharged Hyde on the market back in New Orleans and your first thought is go barhopping." he frowns at her.
The woman just grins back, "Ach, be fair Nelen!" she grins, elbowing him in the stomach and making him double over with his eyes watering, "Ah dinnae expect ta go ta more 'n one! We just got threwn outta all th' others!" she laughs.
Alice smirks softly as she sits at the table, Nessa sliding her glass of wine over to her hand for her. She enjoyed going out and being social, but bars and other heavy crowd areas tended to make it a bit hard for her hearing and such to compensate for her blindness. "Oh come on, it's nice to go out isn't it?" she asks as Nessa nods, quickly kicking back a good pull from her own beer.
"Yeah, hell it's been ages since we just hung out a bit, let alone at a bar or something." Aisha nods, drinking from some fruity smelling cocktail that probably had two pages of instructions to make in the handbook. "Besides we need it. We're making progress but things have been pretty rough. Between racist ghost memories, hulked up junkies, and the general ticking clock of a wild beast running loose back home, I think we're all getting a bit frazzled."
Drusilla seems to agree, downing her entire pint in one gulp before motioning for more. "Yea, you can't constantly be raiding and attacking. Sometimes you need to unwind, celebrate victories and mourn losses, and all that."
Nelen sighs, "Fair enough, and at least this place isn't likely to kick us out because you took off your illusion bracelet." he comments, glancing at the gorgon bartender who was wearing a very thick pair of sunglasses over her eyes, "Mind you... that wasn't getting kicked out so much as legging it while everyone was busy trying to revive that waitress who had a heart attack." he nods meaningfully to Drusilla. He'd long ago crafted a spelled bracelet that would give Drusilla the illusion of having two eyes rather than one huge one to make her appear as just a tall human rather than a cyclops... but it only worked so long as she was wearing it.
Dawn was holding a large glass of cream, lapping it up in a very cat-like way, as she smirks, "At least we got a good laugh outta that one." she smirks. She was in her humanoid form, but she'd hidden herself as an animal in the other bars due to her still looking too young for them.
Drusilla just giggles at that, sticking her tongue out before waving to the bartender. "It was getting uncomfortable so I took it off. If you wanna restrain me in uncomfortable ways it should be more fun." she teases.
Loren slams her mug back down, then grins, "So, yer all pract'cally legends among th' supernaturals now yanno! Th' crew what broke one ah th' mundane blades! Ah've tangled with m' fair share o' beasties, but ah'm bettin' ye got some stories o' yer own too eh?" she nods to the group.
Aisha laughs at Loren's comment, grinning a bit. "Oooh legends, I like the sound of that, maybe if we bust another one up I'll be the most famous knight of my line after all..."
Nessa smirks, nodding softly. "Yeah, Alice and I have fought some pretty interesting things. Hey," she chuckles, slapping Alice's shoulder faintly. "Remember that thing in Russia? The bear?"
Alice snorts, nodding at that as she sets her wine down. "So we get sent to the middle of nowhere Russia, some little oil town has been dealing with 'bear attacks' lately. 'Cept, it's the dead of winter, right? There shouldn't be some roving bear out that far. Besides the bodies are all messed up but not EATEN or anything. So we go in and we talk to the locals for a bit, and none of this makes sense."
Nessa nods at that. "They're talking crazy, about some great bear spirit that's cursed the land because of the oil rig, right? But this chunk of land has been digging oil since generations ago. If it is a nature spirit it's a super slow to react one. So we go into the wilderness to track this thing."
"Nessa does," Alice adds. "I mainly just followed. The wind was so damn loud I couldn't hear the thing."
"Yeah, couldn't hear it right until it was on our ass," Nessa smirks. "This thing isn't a bear, it's a godsdamn wendigo. I never heard of a Russian version of that, but apparently for good reason. This thing was twice the size of the one we went up against in Alaska, and instead of, like... ya know how they have kinda deer like features? No, this one had a bear skull on it's head, and its bone claws strapped to its arms. This fucker could use tools... Apparently some survey team got lost and... well this guy was the one that made it...."
Nelen nods, fingering one of the claw-like scars on his side under his shirt, "Yeah, Wendigo are a real pain in the ass." he nods.
Dawn grins, "More like the side, right above your hip, in your case."
Nelen shakes his head, "No, ass too. He got me right above my left thigh as I was trying to fall back, remember?"
Dawn blinks, then nods, "Oh riiiiiiiight, and you were limping for like a week." she smirks.
Nelen rolls his eyes, "So how did you guys deal with him? I mean all I could do was get the hell back to the hotel and try to get the stuff together to set up some trap spells so I could lure the thing into the magical equivalent of a mine field and leg it before the first one went off."
Nessa smirks, "Well like Alice said, this thing WASN'T eating the bodies. It was using them as bait. It figured why settle for some tiny population of a town of underfed workers when it could lure some fat outsider hunters in to come get the bear..."
Alice nods, "It understood the concept of hunting. Like, it was willingly going hungry to wait for a bigger score, I've never heard of one of these things doing that before! I wanted to study it but... ya know we were the 'fat outsider hunters' that it wanted. So we run through the frozen wilderness for about a full day..."
"I could barely do my blood magic, we're talking sub-zero temperatures here, taking my gloves off to carve myself meant risking frostbite, and this fucker wasn't bleeding more than a little bit when I cut him. So we just book it and do it old school." adds Nessa.
Alice chuckles. "In the old days a Roche had to fight a minotaur in some test of strength with a local giant tribe, no clue where they got a minotaur in Spain but hey. So he goes and he leads this thing on a day long run through its own maze, tires the thing out so he can kill it. That's what we do. We take the absolute worst possible path every time, over rough rocks, across fallen trees, through frozen rivers, the works. By the time the sun's coming up the next day this thing that had been starving itself hoping for a bigger prey was near collapsing."
Nessa laughs louder at that, downing the last of her beer. "Course, we were too, I was near dragging Alice behind me the last hour... That's when we manage to find an old hunter lodge that had been left behind, a real hunter lodge not us kind of hunter. Still, it has this antique gun in it. You know elephant guns? Safari stuff? Thing's as big as my arm. So Alice keeps this thing busy while I get it and figure out how to load it up, and just when the sonofabitch is about to claw her head off, BOOM! I blow that thing's head clear off its shoulders." She grins triumphantly as Alice shakes her head, chuckling.
"Yes, she blew its head off, and blew the gun up too. How long were your arms and chest bandaged up again after that explosion, dear?" she teases, making Nessa roll her eyes.
"Oh I'm sorry I saved your life in an inelegant way Miss French Ballerina..." she sneers right back at her.
Loren throws her head back and cackles at that, smirking, "Ach dunnae give 'er ah hard time Frenchy! Ya dunnae expect ta be ah hunter without ah few nicks 'n scratches on yer pretty arms." she teases, flicking her hand, "Aye, mah turn then. Lets see..." she thinks. "Aye, well this 'un is from ah while ago, afore you lot blew up th' castle. Back when Franklin' was runnin' th' show we were out after most anythin' wot had ah whiff ah magicks 'bout it and, aye, sometimes 'e forced us ta go after somethin' what wasn't harmin' anyone or wut was even livin' peacefully with th' mundies, but sometimes we wound up takin' down ah real nasty bastard." she nods and smirks.
"Ah remember this 'un time aboot eight, ten years anon..." she taps her chin thoughtfully, "Me 'n mah da, mayherestinpeace, were sent out ta Scotland ta investigate some rumors 'bout some wee 'uns goin' missin'. We was in ah 'otel in Edinburgh when all ah th' sudden there's all these loud police sirens 'n gunshots. Me da dinnae waist nae time, snatched up 'is sword 'n off 'e went like 'e was expectin' it, ah was still wee at th' time, not much older than th' wee birdie what be 'is sistah," she smirks and jabs Nelen, "but th' clan's trainers could already tell ah' was one ah th' warrior wimmen types that crop up every so often so they sent me off ta 'prentice with me da like they did fer th' lads."
"Well ah sure as 'ell ain't waitin' around on th' old fart! Ah may ah've been a wee lass at th' time but ah was still a bloody Fullmoon!" she grins and slams her mug down, shouting "OI! SNAKEYFACE! WHO DO AH 'AVE TA FECK TA GET ANOTHER PINT?!" as the gorgon frowns at her, then sighs and starts filling up a tray with fresh glasses. "Anyway, ah was out th' window 'n down th' drainpipe outside, climbin' like ah monkey down ta th' streets. It dinnae take long ta find where they was goin' either. Big bloody trail all along the roadside, someone got sloppy..." she smirks.
Alice smirks, nodding "Hard to keep an eager hunter kid away, I know Nessa and I were Hell on our parents who wanted us to ease into things," she smirks.
Aisha just snorts, nodding "Yea, bit of the opposite for me, mom couldn't wait to get me learning the old ways and I fought tooth and nail to be like the 'normal kids'..." She chuckles, shaking her head softly. "So, what was it then? Sounds like it was something pretty nasty to get that kind of 'sloppy' and get that much attention..."
She smirks, "Aye, it was. See, aboot five 'undred years anon there was this cannibal clan in th' area, out by th' seaside, headed by ah nutter named Sawney Bean. Now th' hunters ah th' time thought they'd gotten him 'n his nasty clan, 'ung 'em up by their necks 'n stomped alla th' wee 'uns inta th' dirt... but ah guess they musta' missed ah few." she shrugs, "It was 'un ah their descendants, all twisted 'n misshapen from 'ow they spent their time buggerin' their sisters 'n brothers." she nods, "Ah know ye may think Clan Fullmoon did that sorta stuff, but nae. Th' old matriarchs made sure that marryin' within th' Clan were forbidden an', well, any time one ah th' lads killed ah' pack o' nasties 'e had no problem findin' ah date that weekend." she smirks.
"Anyhoo, if this freaky bastard was one ah' Sawney's get, it had ta mean that there was more. Sawney's clan was ah buncha cannibal loons, but they was human. They dunnae live fer five centuries." she nods. "Well, 'e escaped th' coppers, but me 'n da were waitin'. Since ah was wee ah put on an act fer the guy, makin' meself look all 'elpless 'n tasty fer him... pain in me arse it was, but da insisted. When 'e drew close me da kicked out the door 'e was hidin' behind 'n clubbed 'im over th' head with th' flat o' his sword until he stopped kickin', then we made 'im take us back ta 'is 'ome." she smirks, "Turns out it was th' same cave by th' ocean. Guess inbreedin' means ya aren't great at tryin' new things." she shrugs.
"Anyhoo, we came prepared. Th' Scots 'o five 'undred years anon did ah good enuff job with th' stuff they 'ad, but obviously they missed somethin'. Well, say what ya like 'bout Frankie, 'e was ah right bastard make no mistake, but 'e made ah point ah doin' everythin' 'e could ta modernize th' clan 'n get us less reliant on magicks. Th' Scots back then did good, but they dinnae have incendiary grenades." she smirks. "Me 'n da lobbed about five apiece inta th' cave an' after that it was jus' ah matter 'o cuttin' down whatever ran out afore it could make it ta th' water 'n extinguish isself." she laughs.
Alice chuckles, nodding as she sips her drink. "As flawed as Franklin was, my family was quite happy to hear Fullmoon was joining many of us in the modern age at least." she teases. "Impressive, though, those cannibal clans can be a real pain to deal with, like rats..."
Aisha snorts at that, smirking. "Oh yeah, they're impressive, but still pretty much humans with gross taste. You wanna talk rats? Couple years back in New York there was this problem. See there was an issue in the amateur modeling community with this one skeevy company, Starmaker Enterprises. They were gross, one of those places out of a cheesy porno where you go in for a bikini suit and all of a sudden the camera man just so happens to mention they also do nude modeling and all. Skeevy, but not really DANGEROUS, they paid ok and did at least keep their word about exposure and all, ya know? Never worked for them myself but they weren't the WORST place for a young model to start."
"Anyway things get screwy back just a few months before I met you lunatics. All of a sudden Starmaker goes from skeevy to dangerous. Girls start going to their shoots and some of them don't come back, you know? Cops check it out of course but nothing connects them, just a sad coincidence they say. I think fine, whatever, not my issue right? That is until this girl I was rooming up with, Rachel, she goes to a shoot they're doing and suddenly she's not coming back. Now I'm not a big fancy hunter like some of you, but I know when shit's fishy and I have a few tricks up my sleeve from home..."
She chuckles, shaking her head. "I go to their main photo studio, this just run down shithole. We're in The Bronx, see, so shitholes aren't super unique, but this was especially run down looking. I go in, do a little stuff, and suddenly the place is going nuts with ghosts. Not human ghosts, though, rat ghosts, musta been THOUSANDS of them..."
Nelen raises his eyebrow, "Rat ghosts? I think I heard something about my great grandma Eliza getting involved with that sort of thing in Romania when she was a girl. Said some local helped her, but Eliza apparently didn't get her name. She said she was pretty sure the girl wasn't human though." he shrugs, "Never did find out all the details on that." he comments, though Dawn just grins and keeps drinking her cream.
Loren nods though, "Aye, ghosts are ah right pain in th' arse. Ye cannae cut them with ah normal sword. Any time we ran inta them Frankie threw ah right fit 'cause we had ta use magic ta sort 'em out. Steel ain't nae good 'gainst th' spirits 'n science be oot 'cause ah that arsehole in New York demandin' some stupid arse 'patent fee'. Venky-whatever'isnamebe." she smirks, knocking back another mug in one shot and shouting for a refill.
Aisha smirks, finishing her own drink. "Oh these weren't malicious ghosts, they were just, ya know, dead rats. See that's the thing about my magic, I'm not a necromancer proper, unless I want to be. I just pull the veil back and let things unfold in the light. These rats just skitter and squeak around, but they're harmless, most seem just kinda confused, like 'hey what's going on'. I see they're all coming from this place's dark room, though so I figure hey, there's the target. I'm expecting... I don't know WHAT I'm expecting honestly, but I sure as hell didn't expect that..."
Aisha shudders a bit. "I kick the door open and there's this guy, guy who runs the studio. I'd seen him at things before, heard friends talk about him, always figured he was a harmless creep, right? Whenever he'd get a cameraman to suggest more 'racy' pictures he'd always clam up all shy like it's not his idea. Harmless little wimp, right? Well somehow this harmless wimp is now ten foot tall, covered in black fur, with jagged yellow teeth and a big tail that whips around like it's made of rope. This fucker was a wererat! He was abducting women from his studio and infecting them to make them his 'brides'. He's got his own little harem in the sewers apparently."
Alice snorts loudly at that, setting her drink down. "A wererat... I've heard of those in Paris at times. As funny as they are those things can be quite deadly."
"You're telling me," Aisha laughs, "Like I said this guy's got twice my height at least, and those fangs look like they could take a subway car apart. He turns at me and he lets out this horrible shriek and just CHARGES. Naturally, I'm a bit freaked out. Like I said I'm not much of a hunter here, I spent most of my life AVOIDING this nonsense. So I'm not a hundred percent what to DO here frankly, other than 'run like hell'. Make matters worse as you all know I bailed on training before finishing up, I don't have 'keys to the gate', as it were. I can do some basic magics, but no calling up on loa aid."
She shakes her head, smirking. "So me and the rat fight for... keerist it must have been a good hour, I'm too untrained to do much to him, he's too freaked out at being busted to do more than snap and flail at me, it has to be the ugliest 'hunt' ever, just two idiots flailing around hoping they get lucky. Thankfully I've always been a fairly lucky idiot. I get him back in the darkroom and he slams into a table, chemicals go all over him and I'm like 'well, I'm pretty sure a shit ton of fire kills anything' and thank god I'm a smoker, right? It cost me one of my favorite lighters but I chucked it at the guy and he goes up like a roman candle, whole place burns down in less than an hour. Rat problem solved, right?"
She sighs, shaking her head. "Nope, see like I said he's not EATING these girls, he's BITING them... I go down into the sewers, cursing angrily about the entire situation, and there's this room with about six girls counting Rachel, all ratted up just like him." she sighs again, looking up. "Well I'm sure you proper hunters can all make the case that sometimes you have to do the hard stuff, and even the innocent victims can't be treated different or whatever, but I couldn't exactly torch these girls too. I give ‘em the speech, I'm sure you've all got some version of it too. The big 'you get one fresh start, don't fuck me here or I'm coming after you' one?"
She frowns at that, looking at her empty glass. "That was when I started 'working', ya know, going after my ancestor's relics and all... I saw how sad those girls were, how fucked their lives were and thought ‘someone should have been protecting them, the cops can't handle this’, you can't exactly go around saying 'hey watch for ratmen' and look sane but... ya know... someone's gotta be there looking out for people like them. Monster or not they were scared kids. So I help them out, tell them the 'rules' about being like they are so they can keep safe and not be dangerous to others and just... let ‘em go..."
Nelen nods, glancing down at one of his bandaged hands, "Been there." he mutters.
Loren shrugs, "Ach, ah haven't. Ah was raised ta be ah hunter." she smirks, "But... ah ken what ya mean aboot th' other part. Sometimes th' monsters ain't actually doin' anythin' wrong... but when yer part o' ah hunter family 'n ya got someone in charge what wants ta kill anythin' like that..." she shrugs, then knocks back her beer, "Oi! Nelen! 'ow bout you lad? Yer body's got more scars 'n half th' lads back in Ireland, ya gotta have ah few good 'uns!" she grins.
Nelen frowns at her, "Yeah, and some of the bigger ones came from you or one of 'the lads back in Ireland', remember?" he snorts.
Loren rolls her eyes, "Ach, come ON boyo! Ah told ya we dinnae have any choice at th' time! Franklin woulda cut down anyone that so much as looked at 'im funny!" she nods firmly. "Now pick ah story 'n get talkin' afore ah rip yer damn shirt off 'n pick out one ah th' scars fer ya ta tell us about meself!" she nods, Dawn snorting a bit of her drink at that.
"FINE!" he snaps, then takes a breath, "Fine." he grumbles. The group might notice that his eyes didn't go red at that, Merihim apparently still playing possum. "This one was right after I first met Al and learned how to control Merihim." he nods, holding up a hand and flexing his fingers. "Incase any of you didn't know yet, these aren't just to hide the sigils I had to carve into my hands when I made my pact. They're spelled so that Merihim can't use his full power. He can still possess me if he wants, but unless I'm in the drivers seat the bandages can't be torn off." he nods. "Dawn was still really young too, about..." he thinks, "Five or six. She was still trying to figure out how to turn human and, well, she never did get the hang of it." he nods.
Dawn rolls her large yellow eyes, "Yeah yeah... fine... This thing where I turn into some kemonomimi otaku wet dream here? That's not what this spell is supposed to do. It should let me go all the way human and back, but I just can't... get the hang... of it..." she screws up her face and concentrates, and one of her ears shrinks ever so slightly, then snaps back to normal as she takes a breath and relaxes, "Yeah, its like trying to stretch a muscle in someone else's body."
Nelen nods, "Anyways, we were still in the Nightside at the time. Al had us running errands for him in between lessons, this was before we knew he was a demon mind you, and one of his errands had us going to the Mammon Emporium for some stuff he needed for a spell."
Nessa smirks at that, "Oh fun, whatever could an ancient demon need from the emporium to cast a spell. I'm sure it's something harmless and super common to find and he just wanted you to go there because it's a fun trip..." she teases, motioning the bartender over for another round.
Nelen shrugs, "Actually, most of it was. He had a really well stocked sanctum, but it was the ones for the more common spells that he kept running out of because they'd get used up since he'd need them every few days or so. Nothing spectacular, but Al had set himself up as a shopkeeper running 'Alphonse's Fine Sorceries and Alchemical Shoppe'. Not sure why, I think he was just killing time while waiting for new marching orders from Hell. Anyway, he needed stuff to set up things like anti-theft curses that would make a shoplifter's hand wither and fall off if he made it past the threshold without paying, alarm spells that would go off if someone tried to pick the lock. Heaven and Hell aren't able to act directly in the Nightside, so he actually needed to rely on norma... well, more standard things." he nods.
"Anyways, Dawn was still going nuts about having two legs and thumbs at the time and was insisting on being in her human-ish form as much as possible, so it was also a trip to get her something to wear in that form for decency's sake. That and I was getting sick of pushing kiddie fiddlers who kept trying to nab the little naked cat girl into traffic." he smirks, "Anyways, we got her set up with something to wear..."
Dawn grins, "Overalls and a teeshirt, with a hole for my tail since non-humans are normal in the Nightside. I got those sneakers that had lights in the heels too."
"... yeah, she kept trying to get them to light up. Had the batteries worn out in two weeks. Anyways, as we're going to the apothicary's to get the stuff on Al's shopping list we start hearing screaming coming from the main part of the mall and it doesn't sound like the usual sort of screams. I mean every once in a while someone is stupid enough to piss off Razor Eddie or someone doesn't pay their taxes and Walker sends around a squad to make an example out of them, but this one is louder and coming from more than one direction..."
Aisha raises her eyebrow at that, "Oh yeah? What was it?" she asks, genuinely having no clue consdering with the Nightside it could be anything at all from a gang fight to a timeslip dumping out a live tyrannosaurus rex.
Nelen smirks, then nods to Drusilla, "Remember what I used to get Harry to spill the beans on that Hyde?" he asks, "Yeah, Dawn and I run out into the hallway and there's these big black scarab beetles pouring out of all the A/C vents along the walls, damn near a sea of the things and each one as big as my fist. Dawn all but clawed my shirt to pieces getting up on my shoulders. She was so freaked out she forgot she could teleport!"
Dawn hisses, blushing as she goes back to her drink.
"Anyways, the beetles left me alone, guess they could tell that making me bleed wouldn't be a great idea... but then the A/C system started having it's time of the month or something and blood starts pouring out of all the vents. Made a huge mess. As I'm wading ankle deep through the damn things, good thing I favored construction boots for footwear back then, I see Harry Fabulous heading straight for the exits. Not unheard of given the situation, but Harry was always a sneaky little bastard and he'd be more likely to join in on the looting that was starting up while everything was going nuts than trying to escape. Something stank so I started up after him, I think he just figured I was going for the exits too, and as soon as we're safely outside I tell Dawn to get him."
Dawn grins wide at that, "Childhood trauma with a big dose of spiders." she nods.
"Yeah, I dunno what exactly he saw, but he let out this squeal like a stuck pig and was curled up on the ground in five seconds. I rifle through his pockets and he's carrying some old Egyptian necklace, a big gold and jade chain with a huge emerald scarab beetle set in gold. While the pyramids have mostly been picked clean theres always some secret room or 'real' tomb that the mundanes couldn't get inside of and I'm guessing that's where Harry found that one. I took it back to Al's with us and he identified it as belonging to a pharoah named Djoser from the third dynasty. We handed it off to one of the customers heading that way and as far as I could tell it made it's way back to his tomb. Some things are best just not fucked with. If it starts out with plagues of beetles and blood you can bet it'd get a lot worse before it got better." he nods.
Drusilla snorts, nodding, "Wow, impressive there. No offense but this is why my people have no interest in magic, far too easy to snowball..."
She smirks wider at that, "SPEAKING of snowball..." she teases, "Did I ever tell you the one about when I fought a whole tribe of Orcs? My clan was up in Italy, up north where the mountains are, and I guess we wandered into Orc turf because suddenly we've got the whole lot of them surrounding us yelling about desecrating their land and all. Well luckily us and Orcs share the same general concepts of honor and all, so we all agreed that there'd be a test of strength for who gets the area. Of course they think it's unfair to fight a full grown Cyclops, but luckily for them I was there and this was a couple years ago when I was just starting to get into my 'leadership role' and all, so I happily volunteered to take them on. then I decided to say even a young Cyclops was stronger than any Orc, so the only real honorable test would be the entire tribe against me..."
Dawn and Loren both cackle at that one and Nelen rolls his eyes, "Yeah that sounds like you. Didn't think there were any orc tribes left in the mundane world though. Thought they all took off to Arcadia." he comments, tilting his head at her.
Loren shakes her head, "Nae, maybe afore, but now that you lot busted up Frankie's sword an' got all that magick all o'er everythin' they's startin' ta make ah comeback. Mostly really outta th' way places. Siberia 'n suchlike. Th' clan be keepin' ah'n eye on 'em, makin' sure they behave." she nods. " 'course, that woulda been afore that, but they still had ah few holdout tribes."
Nelen raises his eyebrow at her, "And mundanes never came across them?" he asks.
Loren smirks, "Aye, they did. It just always got put down ta bear attacks tho."
Drusilla shrugs at that, "Not sure what these guys were doing camped in the mundane world, but soon enough I was fighting off the whole lot of them. They were good, too, still needed a good handful of them on me at once to really sweat, but still, they were tough, and persistent. ‘course while we're fighting the tribe and clan are talking and drinking and getting’ to be friends, as we do, and things are actually going pretty well between us. I'm putting a hurting on them but not embarrassing them, we look tough enough to stand up to them without genuinely hurting their pride, win-win, right?"
She laughs at that, shaking her head. "Then I hear this roar, and the ground and snow start shaking, and suddenly from this huge hut I THOUGHT was the chief's. Turns out it wasn't, and out comes a pissed off Ogre, roaring and charging at me, you know, being part of 'the tribe' and all..."
Loren lets out a whistle at that and Dawn's ears perk up.
"Well, that fits." nods Nelen, "Ogres are technically fae, just really big nasty ones. Could be that getting one in their tribe is how they were going to get into Arcadia, or maybe they were just on a hunting trip with one." he comments.
Drusilla nods, "Yeah that makes sense. Didn't exactly ask him what his deal was before I went flying across the mountain, though. Still, couldn't exactly give up! So I run back at him and we get to going at it. He was wild too, guy even got in a few bites on me!" she laughs as she leans over, pulling her shirt up to show a rather jagged looking bite mark on her left side clearly from a large creature. "That's how I got that one there. Anyway we're fighting, I pick up this hunk of tree and brain him with it but he barely even stumbles. I figure the only way to beat him is, ya know... toss him off the mountain. So I bait him, taunting him and moving around a bunch. I get to the edge, where the mountain starts to slope, and I lure him into a charge."
The cyclops slaps the table at that, sending everyone's drinks rattling. "BOOM! He runs at me, I move, kick him in the ass, and down he goes. Guy looked like a yelling avalanche by the time he hit bottom he rolled down so much rock and snow!"
Nelen raises his eyebrow, "I was wondering what the hell that bite mark was from." he nods, "I just assumed you'd pissed off a troll or something." he shrugs.
Loren is laughing at the idea of a screaming avalanche herself, then lets out another scream for more drinks.
"So, anybody else got one?" asks Dawn, grinning.
Alice grins, "I think I got one to beat you all...I ever tell you about the time I fought a dragon?"
Dawn stares at her, "Bullshit."
Loren raises her eyebrow, "Yer fulla it lass. Th' wyrms are extinct." she adds, nodding at Dawn's words.
Nelen shrugs, "Well... not entirely, but there aren't any left in the mundane world." he nods.
Alice just keeps grinning, "Swear to God on my eyes, I fought a dragon."
Loren snorts, "Aye, yer eyes that th' fae lord gobbled up." she smirks over her beer, "And yes, our clan knows about yer deal with 'im." she taunts. There always was a bit of a rivalry between the Roches and the Fullmoons. Their families were, after all, about as different as could be. The Roches were all cultured and elegant, like their fae lord, and came off as French nobility (which they kinda are) whereas the Fullmoons were all bear-like men and clever old witches, much more blunt but every bit as effective.
Nelen sighs, "Loren, we're in the Wulfshead. The truce, remember?" he says meaningfully, nodding towards Emet, the bouncer. The bouncer was, as always, a gigantic man who dwarfed even Drusilla. He was also, strictly speaking, not alive. A massive golem made of hard-baked clay, a glowing word written in Hebrew upon his forehead bringing him to life. He couldn't be seduced, he couldn't be intimidated, and not even a cyclops's strength could so much as chip his body. For reasons unknown to most, he wore a black XXXXL teeshirt bearing the legend "Emerald City of Ozzfest '96".
She sighs, "Aye aye, not like ah wanna have ta find some other pub in town that ain't covered in ah buncha voodoo bullcrap." she rolls her eyes.
Alice just smirks at her, "That's why swearing on them is so serious, my fair Irish lass…" she giggles, "If I get those back my entire family line stops being Hunters." she winks playfully, lowering her glasses to make sure Loren saw them and her white cataract-covered orbs, "Jealous that a Roche fought something a Fullmoon hasn't until little Simoni had her little goddess fueled trip in front of one?" She grins, clearly enjoying needling Loren about it.
"I'll make you a bet, I have proof that I fought a dragon as well as a fantastic story, so if at the end of my story you still doubt me, I'll pay for not just this tab, but the ones we had to rather flee from getting here." she giggles at that, grinning still, "But if I win then not only do you have to admit that a Roche did what a Fullmoon never did and stood against a dragon, but also you're in charge of handling all of those."
Loren smirks, "Hah, not bloody likely Frenchie." she snorts, "Ah Fullmoon ain't ever gonna make any wagers nae bets with someone Faetouched as ye." she smirks, "... 'sides, ah dunnae have nae money." she shrugs, chugging down another beer.
Nelen sighs, "... you spent it all? Really? Jeanne gives you guys at least a twenty grand budget when you go international." he mutters. "What the hell did you spend it o-" he starts to ask as Loren lets out another loud belch, then he frowns, "Nevermind, stupid question. Go ahead Alice."
Alice snickers, "Well lucky I feel like sharing the story anyway. So! There I am in Provence with Nessa, there's been trouble with local farmers, vast amounts of livestock just vanishing, that kinda stuff. So we track the source down to this cave in a hill overlooking most of these farms, pretty obvious, right? The place is a damn graveyard of animals, bones bleached white, every scrap of meat torn off them, and the smell... like a gas leak, but stronger. More potent..."
Nelen nods, "Yeah. Depending on the dragon it'll smell like a chemical sewer half the time." he mutters. Alyzya and Kyrzar didn't, but they were Arcadian dragons and were more the magical ideal for what a dragon could be rather than what most Earthbound ones were, basically a great big lizard.
Alice nods, "Mhm, that's what got us on edge first. Tons of food, foul chemically smell, cave lair. So we go deeper in, ready for a fight, and there we see it. A great wyrm of a beast, with ruddy red scales and golden frills around its neck, and shiny white claws that could easily tear us in half without effort..."
Nessa speaks up at that, smirking, "It was also about the size of a great dane... it was a young dragon's first lair..."
Alice waves her hand dismissively, "Still a dragon!"
Loren snorts, "Hah. Thats all?" she asks, "Ye fought ah wee hatchy?" she sniggers, "Oh, an' ye were wrong Frenchy. Clan Fullmoon has slain ah dragon afore." she smirks.
Nelen begrudgingly nods to her, "Its true. Stephy told you about those dragons that he got the island for remember? Well, they were sealed in the Mundane Blade by Cillian Fullmoon back around nine hundred AD." he admits.
Alice smirks, "Fair enough, though we didn't have a walking magic war crime to help us, at the time." She teases "And a young dragon is still a very powerful being!
Nessa nods, "Mhm, especially if she catches you pocketing one of her jewels you think 'feels valuable...'" she frowns, throwing a glare at Alice, who just laughs softly.
"Regardless! The beast attacked! She was a powerful fighter! Quite adept at the flame arts too! We fought with it, I even took one of its teeth!" she grins as she leans to her cane, unscrewing the top to reveal a hidden compartment, tipping it over to let a still shiny, razor sharp, tooth clatter on the table.
"And," Alice continues, "she got a blow on me too…" she adds, pulling her sweater up to reveal a rather vicious looking burn along the entire right side of her chest, the telltale black veins visible that usually came with dragonfire burns.
Dawn tilts her head, "Woah..." and even Nelen, with all his scars, looks impressed.
"Huh, so that wasn't from when you two went up against my Uncle that time? I think Stephy told me that he grabbed you by the neck and used you as a shield when Nessa tried to throw her flames at him or something?" he asks.
Loren herself shrugs, muttering something about her having some just as impressive ones.
Alice nods, putting her sweater down, "That was on my back, got that mostly healed up. Can't fix dragon fire though," she chuckles, "Anyway we eventually subdued her and hey, we weren't going to kill a kid that's just trying to make her own home. So we made some contacts with our... benefactors... and arranged for her to join one of the few remaining dragon families in Arcadia."
Nelen tilts his head, "Huh..." he nods.
"Aww, couldn't bring yerself ta hurt th' wee thing eh?" sneers Loren, then slams her mug down, "OI! HISSY! HOWSABOUT ANOTHER ROUND OVER 'ERE!?" she hollers.
The gorgon's head snaps around and she glares at Loren behind the thick dark lenses she's wearing over her eyes, then looks towards the door, points at the table, and whistles. There's a sudden grinding sound as Emet's head slowly swivels around to focus on the group.
Nelen winces, "I... think thats last call for us."
Dawn's ears fold back and her tail fluffs, "Yeah, oh dear lookit the time and the big clay monster that my magic eyes won't affect."
Loren just smirks, getting to her feet and cracking her knuckles, "Oho! Siccin' yer pottery on me eh? Well ah-"
Nelen cuts her off, "DAWN!" he yells.
Dawn pounces, locking eyes with Loren, "Pleasedon'tkillmeforthiskay?" she grins, and then big bright eyeball flash as Nelen throws the woman over his shoulder, tossing down a wad of bills on the table as the group runs to the exit, Loren making blubbering noises and scrabbling at her hair and shirt as she's carried out of the bar while they beat a hasty retreat.
Alice smirks as she nods to Nessa, who tosses some money on the table. "Sorry!" Nessa calls as the rest of the group quickly dart to the door, Drusilla downing the last of her drink before tossing the glass aside on her way out.
Out in the alleyway Nelen sighs, heading along the path back to the hotel, Dawn shifting her form back to her animal one and teleporting up onto his unoccupied shoulder. "Well, that could've gone better. I swear to gods if I get banned for that..." he grumbles, the red haired woman whimpering and flailing weakly as he carries her off. "If anyone asks, she's drunk as hell and we're taking her home. Nobody would doubt that from her smell." he nods to the others.
Alice nods, smirking softly, "Yes it definitely won't be a hard act for her to play…" she teases, patting the passed out woman's head as Drusilla helps Nelen support her.
"This was fun, though," Nessa adds, "We should do it again sometime..."
He nods, then glances at Loren and raises an eyebrow, "Dawn, the hell did you make her see? I mean this is the kind of girl who I've known to fight a whole ghoul nest with nothing but a piece of bent metal." he comments.
The Cheshire nods, "Well... I figured that she's probably not going to be too intimidated by the normal stuff... so she thinks that she's at an Arcadian formal party where she is literally physically incapable of misbehaving." she nods.
Nelen looks at her again and if they listen closely they can hear her whimpering, "... gottagetoutofthisball..." over and over.
He looks at Dawn, then back at her, "... sometimes you scare the hell out of me cat." he nods.
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