Dave, prepared now to dispel the magical horror that having the head of a clown undoubtedly is, focuses his mind for real now! And lo and behold, his head shifts and transforms back into its original self! Dave is normal once more, and his pig leg nearly squeals with joy at the sudden change.
~Glad to see you're figuring this thing out! It's taking you people long enough! Speaking of, want some spells? I can fix you up with a nice fun test I thought of right now! You know, to celebrate your head that isn't a clown anymore? Though maybe it would have been fun to test with that as well!~* * * * *
THE DUNKER, realizing that there's going to be up to 8 or more possibly drunk wizards within about five meters of one another within a very short period of time, does a quick check to register the area's exits and rank them in order of likelihood of him making his escape through them.
Firstly, there's the front door - that's a pretty good exit. He could very easily get through that. Then there's the back door. It looks locked. Then there's the basement, or what looks like the door to one. Also probably locked. In fact, the front door may be locked as well. Maybe the bartender deliberately locked them to keep all these people in here with him.
He ponders this for a rather long time, in fact, until the door opens up and two people enter - teenagers, from the looks of it. One's a tall, well-built, disheveled girl wearing a tracksuit, the other one's a shorter, prettier girl wearing a flowery dress. They seem very jumpy from the looks of it. They begin scanning the room, and upon spotting Joanie, stalk right up to her, almost running into the improvised counter and knocking it over.
"Joanie. Hey," the shorter girl says, a little out of breath.
"We came as fast as we could. So, what do we do?""Things are fucked," the tall one says, more nervous than the other one, very much on edge, in fact.
"Oh, pshaw. You and your negativity! Have a drink first, then we'll talk," Joanie says, not even looking at the two.
"What?""Joanie's experimenting with extra booze today, and she wants people to share the fun," Nigel says, turning to the girl and raising his glass.
"A little booze helps the magic work better, after all," Joanie says. The two girls look at one another, and cautiously walk up to THE DUNKER, who seems to have taken up the position closest to Joanie and Nigel, the former having taken a corner seat.
"Uh, hey, big guy, sorry to bother you, but you mind moving two seats over? We, uh, need to talk with our friend here. Sorry," she says a little uncertainly, and the tall girl nods along, her eyes darting around.
"Hey, he's our friend, too, sort of," Nigel pitches in.
"Sort of? He's my best friend! We're blood siblings now, didn't you hear?" Joanie adds.
"Huh. Uh, well, sorry, man," the shorter girl says to THE DUNKER.
"I, well, didn't know.'""Yeah, er... sorry," the taller girl concurs.
"Fat dude, meet Shauna, she's the short one, and Raven, she's the tall one. Shauna, Raven, meet fat dude. He's the fat one." Joanie says, gesturing at the respective people in an introductory manner. The two girls nod at THE DUNKER, then sit down at the two remaining spots at the bar and order a pint of light beer to share cautiously, which the bartender gladly provides.
* * * * *
John tries to reassure James with his own tales of dealing with tragedy.
"Yeah, I hear you. I could only think about drinking myself to an early grave after my two friends went away. Can't imagine what it must be like for you, losing your love like that. Just take your time, eh? I'll be here if you need anything at all."James sits there silently for about five minutes, playing with a fork idly until he becomes sufficiently bored to finally stab it into some of the chow. And from there, he seems to have the thought that hey, as long as he's there, he might as well take a bite. In the next moment, John notices something wonderful - the same thing that happened to him when he first ate here, but somehow magnified - the taste of greasy sin seems to hit James in an intoxicating manner, seducing him to the way of the chow, provoking his interest. And so James begins to eat. Quite enthusiastically, too, finishing off his lukewarm bowl of chow in mere minutes.
"Well, that was good," he concludes after a few moments.
"Can't really remember the last time I ate. Have I ever eaten? Hm."* * * * *
Halesey knows that there's something about this man. He's got the stuff. But is it the right stuff?
"Something in you stirs my Holy Potato, man. Do I have the balls? I have potato shaped balls the size of space, dude. Check this out.""Less talking, more god power," the man says, and Halesey takes up the standard potato stance as he evokes his vortex power at the entrance.
[Halesey's affinity roll: 1-->5+1]
However, no vortex appears to soothe his impulses. Must be the negativity in the room!
"Do my eyes deceive me, or has that door not changed at all?" the dude wonders aloud, still in a monotone.
"Surely this cannot be," he enunciates a little, causing Halesey's inner potato to stir further.
* * * * *
Eta, not able to resist the siren song of leylines, viscera and furry creatures that viscera, moves back over to the school, getting there after a reasonable walk, though she finds that little has changed, though the furry creature appears to have vacated the front yard, which is still coated in a solid layer of gore.
Now, she has several options. First, the front door, which smells like hell, and not the sanitized, dusty Sheol kind, either. Secondly, the pillars, which she's had a bad experience with. Or maybe, just maybe there's another door around the back. Just maybe, she thinks, and a quick look reveals that there indeed is one! Somebody seems to have detached the door from the hinges in a violent fashion, in fact, splintering the doorframe a bit in the process.
Author
Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 273977 times)