| A Teenager an Ostrich and a Chaos Mage Walk Into The Usual | ||
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| Summary: Pola and Pinky enter the Usual for the first time but still find it oddly familiar, and have a chat with Nathan Xeos over pizza and cherry cola.   |
A teenage girl wearing an orange and white jacket and jeans walks into the Usual, but it's what follows her that's much more likely to attract attention, an ostrich with pink feathers, an eye patch, and some golden ruby jewelry around it's neck, among other things. "Huh, not exactly like the Usual we're used to, but still feels somehow familiar..." The girl comments as she looks around, with the bird nodding in agreement. They then head further inside, looking around a bit in an attempt to decide where to sit. "Well there's a familiar sentiment. I'm guessing another fellow unwitting dimensional traveler?" Nathan says, having overheard the comment about the unusual Usual. He takes a drink of egg nog, not paying much attention to the ostrich. Pola grins and laughs a little. "Well, perhaps not quite so unwitting, since I came here hoping this is where a certain woman ended up disappearing to sometime ago. She was my adoptive mother, by the name of Katherine Lebedev. For a long time I wasn't sure quite what happened to her, but I eventually found some notes about dimensional portals, along with the device she used to make them." Nathan Xeos nods. "Only you ended up here and or elsewhere instead of where they ended up. Yeah, these little balls of reality seem to have that going for them. At least going from here to elsewhere seems more doable." He shrugs. Pola nods back and smiles. "I guess we'll see. I haven't been here long, still looking around a bit. But if it does take going from here to somewhere else to find her, I will. I.... kinda miss her." She admits as Pinky pats her slightly with a wing, and then both girl and bird start heading toward the bar, with Pola looking up at the man again. "Mind if I join you?" "Only rule is no Christmas carols." Nathan replies. "Heard enough of those already." He mutters. He finishes his glass, placing it down on the counter. Pola laughs and hops up onto the next barstool, and Pinky moves to stand by the next one after that. "Deal! I totally agree, heard enough of them to last a lifetime." She offers with a tone of disgust. "I'm Pola by the way, and my feathered friend there is Pinky, don't worry, she doesn't bite, much." She says with a grin, then ponders a bit what to order, eventually deciding and waving down the barkeep. "Hey barkeep, can we get a large pepperoni pizza over here and two cherry colas?" Nathan Xeos would be fine even if the bird did bite. Granted blood magic gets messy, but still. "Nathan Xeos, magical idiot." He says with a wave. "I swear they start playing sooner every damn year." Pola nods in agreement. "It's like a disease, slowly spreading till it takes over the entire year. A younger me might think it's great, but I'm now an orphan and a bounty hunter, the holiday just doesn't have the same charm it used to." She says with a sigh. "Anyway, nice to meet you Nathan." She offers just as the drinks are delivered, and she grins, taking a sip. "Its also hard to celebrate with various eldritch beasties breathing down your neck as well... Not to mention the weird ones that come out this time of year." He sighs. "Those are always fun." Nathan spins a finger in the air, his empty glass replaced with a full one. That raises an eyebrow as Pola doesn't know what an eldritch is, but she shoots Nathan an interested expression. "Never heard of an eldritch, what sort of strange beasties are you talking about? Sounds dangerous." She says with a grin that gives the impression she likes the prospect. Pinky is listening too, but stays quiet at first, besides grabbing her glass in her beak and letting the cola pour down her throat before setting it back down and letting out a burp. "Excuse you featherbutt." Pola comments, giving the bird a playful slap on the back, to which Pinky finally grunts. "You try drinking from a glass with a beak!" Nathan Xeos hums. "Oh, you know, colors out of space, the shambling dead, creatures from the depths of the ocean and lost to time... That kind of thing." He says, with a slight shrug. "The kind of thing that is just as likely to drive one to madness as it is to shred your face." The pizza finally arrives and Pola tosses a couple slices onto a plate for Pinky before getting a couple for herself, and starting to eat one as she listens to Nathan. After a few bites she grins a little. "So all that happens around here then? And more often this time of year you said? Well, guess we won't be bored at least." "Well, kind of. Back home at least. Things get weird around the holidays, especially ones like Halloween. Here? All I've seen is snow and some carolers trying not to fall off the sidewalk." Nathan says, taking a drink of eggnog. "If they showed up here, it'd give me something to do." Pola suddenly looks disappointed, but keeps eating her pizza while Pinky does the same, rather quickly tearing into the slices she was given. "Oh, that's a shame. Snow and carolers are way less exciting, way way less... Oh well, there's gotta be other things around here causing trouble." "Maybe at some point, but not recently it seems. The whole place isn't... stable. I could see anything coming through at almost any time. Hell I've been expecting some weird alternate version of myself to show up just because." Nathan shakes his head. "Hasn't happened yet though." Pola nods, grabbing herself a third slice and giving the rest to Pinky. "Well, I guess we'll just have to keep an eye out then. If things are as wobbly as you say, I agree surely something bad will happen sooner or later." Nathan Xeos waves his hand around, doing... some kind of gesture. "And if something doesn't crawl out of a portal, well, this place is more than likely going to have something screw up with either me or someone else. At least no one's going get hit by lightning around the fountain anymore." Pola winces a bit at the thought of the two of them getting stuck by actual lightning, just the idea brought back thoughts of Johnny's crazy girlfriend Barbara's lightning powers and stinging jellyfish, making her shudder. "That sounds awful. How many people did that happen to?" "Me mostly. No one else was dumb enough to try to flip a coin." And it was only one bolt of lightning. He's had worse. "They don't call it Chaos magic for nothing." Most of the time it doesn't make 2+2 equal 1.21 Jigawatts 50% of the time, honest. Pola grins and nods. "Magic huh? I didn't believe it was real till I met the dragon who gave Pinky her special collar that lets her talk, but I don't think I've seen chaos magic before, or magical lightning either." Nathan Xeos nods. "In different flavors too. It's not everywhere, so it doesn't surprise me. The whole fountain thing was just an honest mistake, didn't mean to hit anyone with lighting, especially not myself." He would give a demonstration, but well, he's not a fan of getting manhandled by bouncers. Pola giggles a little. "Only someone who practices magic could make such a statement. Maybe you could show us sometime, but for now, I think we should be going. It's getting late and I still need to figure out where the two of us are going to sleep tonight. It was nice meeting you!" She says as she stands and hops up onto Pinky's back as the bird moves back from the bar a bit. Nathan Xeos waves to the leaving bird and her rider. "Sometime, but maybe not the chaos magic, hm?" He should get some sleep as well, at some point. Pola waves back and heads out into the city, saying one last thing before she goes. "Sure, whatever you think is best. Have a good night, see you around I guess!" | |
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