World Tree MUSH

    The lounge of the Cafe Between Worlds is a large semicircle dotted with round tables of varying size - some large enough to fit a crowd of eight or more around, some small enough that three would be crowded. At the widest point of the floor is a stage, while around the curve sit a number of bars serving a wide array of snacks and beverages.

    At the moment, the act on stage is just wrapping up: A fairly standard human is delivering the tail end of his big joke for the night. "'And what do you call this... this act of yours?' 'The Aristocrats!'" He takes a bow and awaits applause, but the reaction is... less than enthusiastic from much of the crowd.

    Near the fringe of the lounge, Oberyn is sitting at a mid-sized table; nearly the entire surface is covered with books and papers, save for the space occupied by a mug of root beer and a basket of complimentary french fries. He seems to have been largely ignoring this performance, instead focusing on the mess before him.

Emily wanders in! At the moment, she's in the form of a four-armed catgirl with obviously-robotic ears that seem to have built in speakers, glowing purple eyes, and her usual choice of hair so black it looks like a hole in space or a graphical glitch. At the moment, she's dressed in a garish red and white costume which looks like a 1950's sci-fi outfit.

She pauses a moment by the entrance, watching the last moments of the act currently on stage. "Hmmm ..." In a swirl of silvery glitter, a cardboard sign appears in her hands, and she lifts it up to reveal that it bears the text "5/10" in large block letters.

Not that she actually had a chance to see much of it, she's just going with the crowd.

    As a mustachioed older custodian gently sweeps the alleged comedian off-stage, the next act steps up: A luminescent yellow creature, vaguely humanoid save for the wildly incorrect number of appendages (two heads, six arms, four legs, and a few miscellaneous.) It plucks out a complex tune on some sort of stringed instrument, played by plucking one set of strings with a hook-like tool while rubbing another with something similar to a violinist's bow.

Emily nods in approval to the ethereal musician, and heads over to the front counter, glancing over the crowd in the process. Her robotic ears perk up slightly when she catches sight of Oberyn, and when she reaches the front, she gestures towards Oberyn with both of her left hands and says, "I'll have whichever drink he's having." (As always, she has the same voice as ever.)

    The bartender - a moogle in a bowtie and an egregiously fake moustache - peeks over to Oberyn's table. It's hard to tell for sure, but it seems pretty likely that he's rolling his eyes as he scoops up a mug full of ice, and fills it barely halfway to the rim with root beer. "One large ice, and an extra-small root beer, kupo."

Emily laughs. "Okay, that was even more hilarious than I was expecting," she says. "Okay, how about adding a real root beer on top of that."

It's clear that she isn't interested in either the drink or in Oberyn, but she accepts and pays without complaint, then walks over to sit across from him, apparently without the slightest regard for his focus on the books. "Hey there, Oberyn," she says easily; her voice is the same, and her eyes are probably recognizable.

    The unexpected approach of a newcomer startles Oberyn, sending a stray fry bouncing off to parts unknown. "Oh! It's... um. You, the... from the swamp, and the behemoth hunt! Didn't expect to see you - well, anyone really - here." He nods up at the musician on stage. "That... anything familiar to you? Looks like you've got the build for it today."

    The musician on-stage bows off to moderate applause - and a thrown item that could possibly be some sort of garment? - from the audience, and the next performer walks on. As he sets up a pair of braziers on stage, an unseen announcer declares, "And now, all the way from the exotic realm of Hyrule, it's the one and only... Cryptic Old Man!"

Emily nods. "Right, I never properly introduced myself," she says. "Emily Nyx." She regards the performer currently on stage. "Not that in particular, no," she says dryly. "I just came here when I saw the flyers, so I decided to check it out myself. Just another multiverse-thing with which to amuse myself, really."

She changes the sign to say "9/10" and holds it up as the musician, and dematerializes it just before the Cryptic Old Man arrives, then takes a sip of her root beer. Her expression and bearing doesn't change, but her ears perk up slightly. "So, what's a total bookworm doing in an eatery which is currently varying levels of noisy?" she says wryly.

    "Gotta eat, right? And fuzzy with the ball on his head didn't blink when I asked for something under five gil... actually, I don't know if he DOES blink, come to think of it... ... but um. Anyway. Flyer seemed interesting, and people around said there were some really entertaining regulars. -- ooh, Cryptic Old Man, that's one of them!" Oberyn shuffles his papers around a little, but doesn't seem to make a lot of actual space to put anything new on the table. "... and you... kinda get used to the noise, after a while."

Emily nods at the under-five-gil requirement. "Well, that explains the hilarity," she says without missing a beat. She turns to watch the show, sipping her root bear, ears twitching occasionally. "But yeah, considering what you were experimenting with in the swamp, I can see getting used to noise."

    Up on the stage, Cryptic Old Man has taken his place between the braziers. "EASTMOST PENINSULA IS..." Pause for effect... "THE SECRET! Ohohohoho!"

    "DODONGO..." He leans forward as though sharing a secret. "... DISLIKES SMOKE! Ahaha! Who LIKES smoke, eh?"

    "LET'S PLAY MONEY MAKING GAME! Ehehehe, every time, every time!"

    Finally, he stands up straighter, and grabs the front of his robe. "MASTER USING IT, AND YOU CAN HAVE... THIS!" Security seems well accustomed to this routine, as his flourish at the end of this sentence barely begins before he's surrounded and hustled off the stage. The robe is left lying on the stage behind them.

Emily holds up a sign that says "2/10 - Old Man; 7/10 - Bouncers".

    "Well... the swamp was mostly quiet, aside from nosy villagers. You just caught the... exciting par--" Oberyn is cut off by Cryptic Old Man's 'grand finale'. "-- that... well. Uh... geez. Not... not what I expected when they told me he gave out quest advice and then showed off his magic wand..."

Emily facepalms, snickering. "You're certainly a routine and a half yourself, Oberyn," she says dryly. "Anyway ..." She gets up and casually saunters over to the stage. She taps the mic to test it, and then her ears swivel so that the speakers seem to be pointed right at the mic.

Then synthesized music begins playing from the speakers and picked up by the mic. After an instrumental beginning, Emily starts singing. "Well here we are again ... it's always such a pleasure ... remember when you tried to kill me twice ..."

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> Emily starts singing "Want You Gone"

    The reaction in the audience is mixed - a lot of relief that this is a 'normal' act, a few people singing along, and a disturbing contingent shouting after Old Man ("It's dangerous to go alone!") - but it seems one of the better received showings thus far.

    Oberyn, however... seems to be taking this as a chance to poke at his papers again? Some people... just no appreciation for music.

Emily's performance lasts only a couple of minutes. Somehow, she's able to provide both the melody and the harmony of the vocals. "Go make some new disaster ... That's what I'm counting on ... You're someone else's problem, now I only want you go-o-one ... Now I only want you go-o-one ... Now I only want ... you gooooooooone." The music finishes, her ears perk up slightly, and she takes a bow.

    There's a fair scattering of applause in the audience, though one guy in the back holds up a cardboard sign reading '6 / 10'. Still one of the better reactions though - at least nobody rushes on stage to usher this performer off.

    "... interesting choice. I haven't studied a whole lot of inter-world culture - not really practical, you know? - but that's what they call a... uh... 'break away song', is that it?" Oberyn's finally looking up from his notes now that the song's over - apparently he never learned 'listen with your eyes'.

Emily grins, and gives the man with the sign quadruple-finger-guns and a wink. She's the sort of person who can take what she gives and then some.

She smiles as she sits back down across from Oberyn. "Hell if I know," she says cheerfully. "I just found a still-functioning recording back in my homeworld, the halcyon remnant." She shrugs. "I don't know how anything works, I just partake in what I like."

    "... wow, I... I couldn't imagine. I mean... sure, there's stuff I don't understand, and don't bother to, but the stuff that matters... ... it feels like all I do, sometimes, is try to understand how things work." Oberyn rummages through the pile of papers, and picks out one with some kind of diagram on it. It looks like an odd hybrid of circuit diagram and alchemical circle, with scribbled notations here and there. "... firaga. I keep thinking I have it figured out, and then nothing."

    With the stage vacated, a wizardly looking old man - non-cryptic, from the looks of him - rushes up to address the audience. "Braaaave heroes and adventurers! I come to seek out a band of miighty warriors to take on a graaaaand quest! The dangers will be many, but the rewards... unimaginable!"

Emily considers this a moment, looking over the spell diagram. "... Well, it's Greek to me," she says. "The magic on my world clearly works differently from yours ... or at least the notation."

She regards the man on stage. "I suppose the issue in my case is that I just haven't had the time to get settled," she says, sounding uncommonly pensive. "I've only been in the World Tree for only a couple months, out of six centuries." She shrugs. "I still haven't found my place yet, I suppose."

    "Six centuries... hm. That would agree with... hm. So, I've been meaning to ask... what ARE you, anyway? You hit a lot of the marks for elemental, with the shapeshifting and stuff, but those are usually mindless and magical, and you're... neither of those. Kinda help to know if you're, like, some ancient horror or something; I like to avoid those when I can." Like, oh my god Oberyn, you can't just ask someone why they're a shapeshifter!

    "In a faraway town, a fair maiden has been promised to an eeeevil dragon! For the brave heroes who take on this challenge, the key to success shall be recovering the dragon's mystical orb, which legend states can control its every thought! And the legends say that this orb has been hidden away... by this very dragon... withiiiin... HIS BUTTOCKS!" At this, quest wizard cackles uproariously; this, it seems, is not the grand call to adventure one might have hoped for.

Emily smiles the smile of one who is pleased to talk about themself. "I am a Eudaemon," she says. "Before my world was reduced to a mere remnant, it was a cradle of vastly advanced magic blended with technology -- which I've seen referred to as 'magitek' in other worlds." She shrugs. "Anyway, my body consists mostly of a colony of sub-microscopic nanomachines which can reconfigure themselves into various forms, or convert themselves into clothing or tools." She tugs at her lower left sleeve by way of illustration, and flips her far-too-black hair with her upper right hand at the same moment. "We were created to serve the Masters, humans who had augmented themselves with this magical technology; but for reasons which I still haven't managed to dig up, the masters all died out, and their world fell to ruins, immediately before I was activated for the first time."

    Somewhere around midway through the explanation, Oberyn's eyes begin to glaze over... apparently some or all of this is just a bit out of his area of expertise. ""... magitek... machines. So... robot, then, I guess? That's probably close enough for now, anyway. Stuff out here is confusing; sometimes a place is just enough like home that it seems to make sense, and then something's different... sometimes it's all 'science technology machines, what's magic' and blahhh."

Emily shrugs; she doesn't seem to mind that he stopped paying attention. "'Robot' is more-or-less accurate, I suppose," she says. "And yeah, I get that." She tosses an ice cube into her mouth. "I've just learned to take it as it comes, I suppose," she says, apparently not needing to take the time to swallow it. "I might change my tune once I've settled down. Of course, I can also see why it might irk someone of your ... natural curiosity," she adds.

    "Well, I mean... it's not all bad, right? There's definitely all kinds of different stuff out there, instead of just cave, mountain, different colored cave, but... it's a lot." Oberyn takes a minute to peek down at his basket of fries - it seems to have run out at some point. "... hm. I think it might be time to pack up... last refill I asked for was dropped off by a bouncer."

    Wizardly questman has vacated the stage; his place is now being taken up by sharply dressed fellow with a rabbit and a top hat. "... now behold, as I use my amazing mystical powers, to make this bunny defy the very law of gravity!"

    With a shake of his magic wand (this time, not a euphemism, thankfully!), the magician gestures towart his rabbit... and the creature begins hopping about, hovering inches above the stage!

Emily smiles. "Or maybe you've just had too many 'free refills'," she says wryly. She glances around. "But yeah, might be about right." She stands up, downs the rest of her root beer, and starts wandering off. "See you around! We'll probably cross paths again when we both find something to amuse ourselves."

    "I hope you don't mind me saying I hope we don't cross paths again TOO soon; it usually seems to mean a simple day's going to get all risky 'n stuff. Adventure's fun and all, but the 'seconds away from a wipe' thing..." Oberyn finishes gathering his papers and books just in time to see the magician's act on stage. "... oh, boo! Boooo! You're just-- HE'S JUST CASTING FLOAT! CHILDREN can do that! -- wait what no what are you THAT IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE IMPRESSED BY!"

    Whoops... and there goes Oberyn, 'escorted' out of the cafe by a pair of bouncers. Apparently, heckling is a privilege reserved for paying customers...

Emily shrugs. "Yeah, that's certainly less than ideal," she says dryly.

And then she snickers as Oberyn is forcibly removed. This was actually more entertaining than she expected! She makes a point of heading to the counter to buy an entire meal. Gotta fill your more-or-less magical appetite for the show ...