The Honor Circle Returns! (IC)

[Stygian]

Andrea just muttered something, waving a hand in Dani's direction. Slowly, she pushed herself up to sit on the end of the bed, rubbing her cheek. She looked like she wanted to break something, and for a moment there was a tension in the air. A few ripples ran through a beaker of water standing on a tray. Then, she sighed, and it was gone as if it had never been there.
   'Don't bother. No, I'm not going to do anything', she said, wearily. 'What good would it do either way? I'm...' She cut the sentence short, and sighed. Then, after a minimal wait, she looked to Dani.
   'You should lay down and rest, really', was all she said. Then, she stood up, and walked over to a chair down at the end of the room, sinking into it.

- -

'I didn't save you. You're exaggerating there. I did come in just in time to be convenient though', Stygian replied, coolly and calmly. He seemed to have ignored returning the Boogeyman's jibe completely. Rather, he had taken him up on the Absinthe, and downed a near-undiluted shot of chlorophyll green in a little glass. 'It was necessary. That's about it. I don't really doubt you'd have found a solution, eventually...' It was hard to tell whether if he really meant that, with his tone, and the way he kept his eyes turned away from the elf. Whatever the case, they both knew it had to be said though, for common courtesy. And then, more importantly, there was always the question of whether if there could even have been as bad a situation as Sylvie seemed to imagine...
   'Be more confident in yourself. Worry less, before you learn to think more', he said, after setting the glass down with a dim clack. 'I think that's all you have to work on. The rest... you seem to have.' He still didn't look at her.

[Boog]

"And your lucky numbers are 7, 42, 54559.5, Pi and 12," Boog added with a snicker, "And doll, if we were aloud to consider someone having it coming to them a challenge, everyone here would be in the infirmary. Future reference, all that. I'll let it slide, since you didn't get the rules completely..." There wasn't so much a wink as the implication of one. A vocal wink, "But I'd like to wait until after someone's drunk enough to accept a challenge before they slug one another." Or greedy enough, he shot a glance at the book he'd left out, with the sign still waiting there forlornly. So far, the curiosity of the patrons had greatly disappointed him.

--

Marya was Tired. Tired and grouchy. She'd vastly prefer to be drunk any day.
"Keep an eye on him for me Rich', I need drinks."
"Fine." The mongoose made her way out, leaving the zombie to watch over Dekuyaketh. She ordered something potent looking and made her way to a table toward the back -
Wait.
That guy in the cloak was giving the room a once over again. His eye had settled on her, briefly.
Marya was in a Bad Mood.
"Th'hell you looking at?" She snarled at the cloaked man nearby.

[techmaster-glitch]

Mechangel

   The cloaked hunchback turned slightly as [Marya] came up to him. His voice sounded in his head.
   [Acessing Data Log...Done.]
   [Tag: Marya. Physical form: Anthrpomorphic mongoose. Analysis of equipment and physical build suggests melee proficiency. No recorded confrontations of subject. Full combat capability unknown.]
   "Everything." A strange voice replied from under the shadowed hood. It had a slightly...distorted, buzzing quality to it. A small red light shone from within the blackness, changed to blue, then green, then went out again. "I am looking at everything. I am gathering information. Knowing things is important, is it not?"

[Angel]

Dani sighed a little and crawled back to her former spot on the bed, wincing just a little. "All righty," she answered Andrea, leaning back on the pillow and looking decidedly more tired. She'd been through a lot, and she felt like sleeping on her own now that the chaos was all over. "If he wakes up," she mentioned, pointing at the blackguard with her foot, "Tell him I said thanks..." A minute or two later, she dozed off. Whether it was narcolepsy or her own will wasn't discernible.

----

Sylvie looked at Stygian as he spoke, the lack of eye contact not going unnoticed. She flushed a little in embarrassment; okay, maybe it hadn't been that bad, but watching a trusted friend turn catatonic didn't really convince her that what had happened was a little thing. And she was grateful. She scanned him again; at one point, her eyes settled on his shot of Absinthe for a moment, then flickered to her hand, then back to the drink before she snapped herself out of that thought derailment and refocused. The only outward reaction she showed was an almost demure nod when he offered her his advice. Her face was pensive, a little solemn.

That moment was broken by Boog's quip, to which Sylvie's reaction was a bitten lip and an annoyed/amused glance at said bartender. She gave a shrug, having already apologized for her 'mistake' and having no reason to regret what she'd done. She dipped her fingers in her drink, swirling them a little and glancing at the book she'd tried to read when she first came in. Boog had looked at it again... he seemed like he was expecting something...

At that moment, an unfamiliar voice spoke. Sylvie looked back, then did a double take, nearly spilling her drink, but catching it with the hand still in it. The cloaked mystery-man had actually said something. Her eyes darted to the infirmary door, then back to Mechangel. Why wasn't Dani around at the times when she'd be most interested?

[Boog]

"'S important to mind yer own fugghin' business," Marya growled back, mentally filing the weird eye and voice under some psychological folder equivalent to what the cloaked man said he was doing and tagged 'things that may be used as a method of kickin' someone in the jimmies'. "You gonna sit in one corner all day and not associate fine, you stare into your damn beer like a good little recluse and don't make nobody uncomfortable."

[techmaster-glitch]

Mechangel

   Beneath the shadows of the cloak, the hunchbacked figue chuckled, in a very distorted way.
   "Personally, I'm surprised you noticed me at all." He said in his strange voice. "But if I make you uncomfortable..." The figure stopped leaning against the wall, actually standing. "Perhaps you'd like to fight me against that? This is an interdimentional combat club, and while I have dropped some invitations for a certain event I'm planning, I've gone with hardly any conversation with anyone, let alone an actual fight.
   "What do you say? Shall we dance the dangerous dance?"

[Boog]

"Dance the dangerous-? Snrkrk!" Marya laughed into her drink, "Th'fuck, you some refugee from a bad soap opera? Yeah, I'll fuckin' fight you. Gimme a minute to get my weapons outta the car." She scooted her chair out and made her way for the door, snickering. "Dance the dangerous fu-huckin' dance? Gotta be shitting me."

--

Richard glanced at the girl laying down to sleep, again knowing better than to ask too many questions, before jerking up at the sound of Marya laughing at someone. He knew that laugh well.
"Aw hell..." He made his way out of the infirmary, on the basis that anything that went down would go down better in his field of view.

[Stygian]

The conversation, or conflict, if one would rather call it that, managed to draw Stygian's attention. Though, it was not with a very enthused look that he looked at Marya and Mechangel during their exchange. At last, they would get to see the hunchback in action. The question was whether if the wait really had been worth the revelation to come. He was always skeptical about that kind of thing. Well, at least he could not tell much about this new contender, other than that he had a weird smell and feeling about him. Not quite... natural. And it was certainly not pleasant.
   'Well, this ought to be amusing...' he muttered over the edge of his glass. 'Bets are that with these two, it will all be black and blue at the end...' He took a deep swig, finishing the tiny drink off, then made a gesture toward Boog for another. And he made sure not to look at Sylvie when he noticed her surprise. People felt more comfortable when little slip-ups like that went unmentioned. He did pass her a glance when he saw her staring at that book though, and immediately his attention shifted to the book itself. If it really were what he was thinking... And why was he thinking of it? Concern?
   'She should learn to talk about her aggressions. With the people whom they concern', Stygian said, then chuckled, hearing her companion exit the infirmary. He gave Richard a sneer and a shrug, then turned back to his next shot. 'Cause I know what she's thinking. Oh, yes. I know what's on her mind...'
   He swigged back, then sighed pleasantly.

[techmaster-glitch]

Mechangel

   The cloaked hunchback was still for a minute, then started quietly snickering to himself. "Philistines...everyone is a philistine..." He continued snickering for a moment, then headed out the door, stopping in one of the vacant Circles.

[Angel]

Sylvie's initial surprise changed into anticipation for the imminent fight. She looked up at Stygian when he spoke, removing her hand from her glass and rubbing both hands together. "I was starting to wonder what his story might be, but this is gonna be fun to watch," she said, not really looking at Stygian, but directing the comment at him. He'd seemed to be speaking to the bar in general.

At his next comment, she smirked and took a gulp of her grape juice. "I can get that she's a little worked up, but still. By her logic, he was in trouble for the things he hadn't got to yet." She glanced over at Stygian, noting that he was looking at the book too. "Not that he seemed to care." Once again, her eyes were drawn for just a second to the lime-green shot before she looked back to the fight.

[TheGreyRonin]

The Queen ignored the other creatures in the bar, mentally blanking them out one by one, then extended her senses to their fullest. Whatever had been causing them to act up seemed to be lessened if not gone for good.
Nearly prepared to give up, she felt a tug on her awareness, something familiar and infuriating. Hungry and frustrated, her instincts overrode her reason, spurring her to action.
Rising from where she had been seated for so long, the Queen moved for the front door of the bar, her long tail extending behind her for balance. Swiftly threading her way past the tables, her clawed feet made clacking noises as she made for the door.
One great clawed hand reached out and opened the door, and she squeezed her bulk outside, scraping the doorframe slightly as she kept her focus on her prey.
Her tail flowed through the air behind her and, almost as an afterthought, flipped the door to the bar closed behind her. Striding through the dark and mist beyond the bar, the Queen disappeared into unknown.

[Stygian]

'Does he have much of a reason to?' Stygian muttered to himself. The hunchback had really been doing what he himself mostly did. And what might have been best to have done, in hindsight. Sal was the one who got along with people, not him. And he hadn't even done much of what he had originally come from, which was to stress off and exercise the full of his powers like he couldn't back home. Then again, he didn't blame those who didn't want to fight something like him. If he weren't too powerful, he was probably too creepy...
   'Can't say that I understand his motives, but then again it's more as if he doesn't really have one to be here', the man muttered. 'So he doesn't need any. Just a clean fight. Decent. As it should be. Instead of working off one's stress by flaunting or being a jerk, rather than actually doing something...' He straightened, and pointedly ignored the huge hunched shape lurching across the room and out behind him, as he finished with a third glass and a lump of sugar. 'Time I was decent as well.'
   Standing up and straightening his coat and shirt perfunctorily, Stygian gave a neutral look back to the bar, a raised brow to Sal, and then a hapless glance to Sylvie. He shrugged, making an almost apologetic face, and then turned and slowly walked back toward the stairs, heading back to his room.

[Angel]

Torn at first between the Queen's departure and the impending fight, Stygian gave Sylvie something else to focus on, though what he said was a bit confusing. It seemed like the lack of fights had left him a little bored, and slightly disappointed. But then why was he leaving? A new fight to watch at least gave them all something to do, and reminded everyone why they were really here.

As Stygian headed up the stairs - looking back at Sylvie almost regretfully - she felt the sudden urge to follow him. But after so much had gone on in the past few hours, she couldn't help but secretly want to watch the fight instead, to relax her mind. Besides which, he might want to be left alone for a while again, given what he had said before leaving. She half-stood, then sat back down, watching him ascend until she couldn't see him anymore. Her fingers drummed a little on the side of her glass, and she glanced out the window and back to the stairs at least twice.

[Boog]

Marya rummaged around in the van, grumbling to herself. She knew she'd packed the damn things, never left home without them these days. Were they under the seat? Don't tell her it was underneath all THIS crud- aha! She finally pulled out a pair of gauntlets that looked like the result of someone trying to crossbreed a sledgehammer and a gyroscope for fashion purposes. Something about the fingers looked related to your common set of brass knuckles, in much the same way a tyrannosaurus was related to your common chicken. She put them on, pulled a few straps to tighten them into place, and stepped into the circle.
The mongoose turned to grin at the man in the cloak and slammed the gauntlets against the ground, causing parts of them to start moving in a most worrying manner indeed. As the pieces continued to turn and spin along her forearms a dangerous-sounding high-pitched whine was soon heard. They only way of putting it was that the implements SOUNDED fast.
"I'm waiiiiitinnnnnng!" She called to the hunchback, grinning the only way she ever had cause to. He's probably not too fast, maybe opt for something nice and open. Not too much so; I want to be the one who wins this, not the terrain.

--

Meanwhile, inside, a dead man heard a high-pitched whine...
"Oh SHIT!" Richard was on his feet as soon as the sound (a faint buzzing by the time it had reached the infirmary) reached his ears. It was a noise that usually meant someone was about to get rattled until their teeth shook, and he had to find out who he was going to have to pry Marya off of.

[techmaster-glitch]

Mechangel

   The shadowed hood cocked for a moment, regarding Marya and her 'toys'. After a moment, he spoke on a seemingly random subject:
   "I supposed it was foolish of me to conceal my form in this place. Despite the fact that I have met with hostility repeatedly because of it, even I cannot hope to compete with some of the more...eccentric characters who have graced this little dimension with their presence..."
   With that, a white-furred left hand slid out from the folds of the cloak, grasped it, and with practiced flourish, smoothly whipped the cloak off, swinging it into a roll and depositing it outside of the circle.
   The figure now standing before Marya was almost certainly as far from what she was expecting as possible.
   The man's body was covered in smooth, silky, pure white fur. Beneath it, a solid but limber build flowed with perfect proportions, with noticeable but not overly-defined musculature showing on his bare arm and chest. A wing, which seemed a little larger than it should have been, was filled with soft, plush feathers. His face was that of a feline's, the man behind it firm but gentle. His expression was haughty and smug, but experienced. His eye was a brilliant and vibrant blue. In all, his body was a perfect epitome of an Angel. As he was, he was rather handsome. Had he been whole, he would have been downright gorgeous. But he was not whole. That was only -half- his body. His left half.
   The other half could not have been a harsher, yet perfectly balanced, contrast.
   Split perfectly down the middle, his right half was made up of hard, edged, and razorlike sleek black metal, a form of menacing machinery with subtle predatory features. The wing was covered in what looked like a multitude of razorblades that imitated the basic shape of feathers. A small red light made up his right eye, and as he looked at Marya, it shifted into several different colors, but then returned to red. The craftsmanship of his machine side was definitely superb, and despite its harsh appearance, it posessed own deadly elegance.
   He wore only leather chaps with a single leg, to cover his flesh side while leaving his machine side mostly uncovered. His flesh foot was clad in a leather sandal, while his machine foot was formed in something of a tri-claw configuration.
   A few things became immediately clear. First and foremost, he was obviously not actually a hunchback. His folded-up wings under the cloak had merely created an illusion of such. The distortion in his voice also followed a logical conclusion: it had to be party artificially synthesized. His choice of words earlier was also explained. Angels were prone to flowery speech and grandiose displays of sophistication.
   Finally, he began spreading his wings. They stretched, and stretched...and stretched! Finally his wingspan reached it's full extent, and it had to be at least double, almost triple, that of any of the other of the winged occupants of the bar. Oddly enough, his organic wing equaled the size of his mechanical one. It even seemed to have an extra joint or two, which seemed most unnatural. In any case, it was somehow perfectly symmetrical with his mechanical wing.
   "Ahhh..." the half-machine Angel breathed, stretching his whole body with his wings, which he now started fanning. "It has been some time since I've been able to spread my wings properly."
   He then stopped stretching, and folded his wings again. "My apologies. I don't believe I've formally introduced myself." He spread his arms open. "I am the Mechanical Angel, but I am more easily referred to as simply The Mechangel."
   [Beginning analysis of unknown gauntlet weapons...]

[Boog]

Alright, so I misjudged things a bit. Marya considered her target. Probably favors the bits that're still all meaty... He wasn't in bad shape, but it looked like the wrong shape to Marya; well defined muscles, but muscles where a human would have them. The overall effect of that with the face and machinery was more than a little disturbing, like when someone was singing a song but didn't know the words, so they just made sounds that were like the words.
"You also talk too damn much." Marya rushed the Mechangel, the battlefield still forming around her. She'd decided where she was fighting this guy; the roof of an apartment building coalesced around them as she was about to throw the first punch... Before feinting to the side and swinging around to try to slam the back of her fist into her opponants still-organic ribs. Testing the waters, and keeping one hand ready to block an assault from the robotic components nearby.

[Stygian]

From having stood peeking in through the door to the infirmary for a while, next having moved off to chatter with Keaton for a bit, the machine's attention was suddenly drawn when Stygian left. She passed a glance between him and Sylvie and Boog, 'blinked' with her large red eye, and looked rather surprised. She turned to the jackal, who was rather wholeheartedly kicking back a Mojito in a talking pause.
   ':ehm... excuse me for a moment...' she said, with that practiced personable and humane hesitance. She slid out of her seat with an excusing look, and then went over to the bar, as if to simply get herself another drink. But, as she did, ordering a Gin and Tonic, she also slid over next to the Green, and after a couple of seconds she turned to her, giving her a quizzical look.
   ':what did you do?' she asked, at last, voice brimming with incredulity.

- -

Steps heavy and comparatively noisy and his thoughts cloudy, Stygian trudged up the stairs, ignoring scents and sound around him and seeing mostly shadows. He should have brought a drink or something to read with him. But then again, he could just sleep to take his mind off things for a while. Humming lightly to himself in a solemn tone, he began walking down the corridor, heading for his room.

[techmaster-glitch]

Mechangel

   The battlefield formed around the two dualists, making the roof of an apartment. [Analysis twenty-five percent comple-]
   [Warning.]
   Before the Circle was finished adjusting, Marya suddenly rushed at the Mechangel, making to throw a punch. Despite the suddenness, the Mechangel's wings immediately began to spread again. The Mechangel's computer tracked her easily, despite the blitz, but then she reversed tack and tried a heavy backhand slam. While the electronic half of his brain--and by extension and augmentation, his organic side--was still able to capture Marya's actions and even project a suitable defense to the feint, she was too close and had come at him too fast. Worse, he wasn't even in his proper combat stance.
   Put simply, he couldn't react properly in time.
   His 'soft' arm ineffectually attempted to swing up to block, but the leverage and angle was all wrong, and he couldn't steady himself right in such a fraction of a second. Her gauntlet smacked the arm, crumpling it into his chest instead of warding off the blow. The only good thing was that his arm acted as a partial cushion, which took most of the force instead of his chest. It still hurt in both places. Very much more so in his arm.
   However, his wings had fully extended behind him, and now, they beat forward with incredible force. Marya was suddenly blasted by a hard gust of wind, while the Mechangel went rocketing right off the rooftop. Another flap behind him, and he stopped almost dead in the air. Then they started beating up, and down, up, down. He was now in a comfortable hover, but also gaining height.
   The electronic side of his brain calculated the actions in a fraction of a second.
   [Damage assesment by bio-sensors. Forearm damaged. Blunt force trauma sustained. Abrasion sustained. Subermal capillaries damaged. Contusion imminent. Estimated severity: moderate to heavy. Secondary damage to upper torso. Subdermal capillaries damaged. Contusion imminent. Expected severity: light to moderate.]
   [Recaculating tactical data...done. Uploading new calculations. Tactical recommendation: maintain superior range.]
   The Mechangel tried to ignore the rapidly growing pain in his arm. "You know, some might call beginning a battle before it has officially been initiated cheating." The Mechangel climbed a little higher, and increased his horizontal distance a bit. He was hovering sort of sideways, his flesh side partially hidden behind his mechanical right. "Then again, those same people might call this cheating as well. What was that about bringing a gun to a fistfight? Especially one that can fly?"
   The Mechangel's metal arm then snapped up, his wrist angled down. A compartment then popped open behind his wrist, exposing two barrels.
   They erupted in rapid flashes of blue light, sending a barrage of dangerous photon pulses to pepper the space Marya was occupying. While his computer automatically compensated for the up-an-down motion of his hovering, his aim wasn't as accurate as it normally would be if he was standing on the ground.

[Angel]

The moment Mechangel removed his cloak and the fight began, Sylvie couldn't rip her eyes away from the circle. She'd been wondering how he might look underneath it (just a passing thought), but what she saw wasn't even possible yet where she came from. Marya's gauntlets looked like they might have been a little more at home in her world, but if that quiet, high-pitched whine was anything to go by, they were a bit more powerful than most non-magical artifacts.

When she saw Sahlena shifting towards her, and heard her question, the elf finally turned her attention away from the battle and to the android, her expression now somewhat puzzled. She wasn't sure how Sal had been involved with anything that happened, but considering the way she acted, it was probable she knew Andrea before seeing her here.

"What, to him?" She made a small gesture in the direction Stygian had gone. "Nothing. If you mean Andrea, I didn't do anything serious. I just wanted her to stop whatever she was doing to Dani. She tried to hypnotize me, and she'd already hypnotized Dani, but when I told her to stop, she... well, she did something to her." She grew quiet, but she didn't look upset, just perplexed. What had that been, anyway? It was like catatonia, but she'd never seen it happen so fast...

[Boog]

"That it's a good way to piss off the person with fists!" Marya shouted back, dodging almost bonelessly. Lets see, gotta get him to come in close. How...?
She grinned.
The gauntlets sounded like they were going into overdrive as she yanked a chunk of asphalt out of the roof and threw it at The Mechangel like a fastball. It was accurate, and thrown with the force of a pitching machine, but she just meant it to be a distraction as she bolted for the door into the building itself. Make it so he has to come inside after me...

[techmaster-glitch]

The Mechangel

   The Mechangel was rather surprised when Marya seemed to effortlessly dodge his bolts. He was not as surprised when she seemed to collect up a ball of asphalt. His electronic eye tracked her gauntlet as she scooped up the material, and his electronic brain projected the most likely scenario.
   [Warning. Incoming projectile predicted.]
   On his next wing stroke, the Mechangel wrapped himself up in a winged cocoon while he twisted back a little, just as the chunk came flying at him. It went sailing over him as he fell into a dive after the backflip, then snapped his wings opened again. Catching the air, he was sent into a quick swoop towards the rooftop.
   But Marya had already entered the building.
   He glided over the rooftop, turning around and settling into another hover on the other side. There was no way he was going to follow her in there, unless he either had no other choice or deliberately wanted to humor her. The tactical situation he would be in if he went into such confined space against an enemy specializing in close quarters would just be horrible.
   His eye started shifting into several different colors as he scanned it. Marya was easy to track inside the building. In fact, he had several armaments that he could use to take her down instantly, and since the building was now between her and him, it would be impossible for her to realize it coming. She wouldn't even realize she'd been hit until she looked down and saw the hole in her body. However, the Mechangel didn't want to end the fight that way. Especially since the battle had commenced without any rules or victory conditions actually being set, so he couldn't be sure if any safety conditions were active as well. This is why I don't trust magic anymore, he thought to himself. A properly programmed technological device with the same effects would never have let this start.
   Were the circumstances actually life-threatening, he wouldn't have had any qualms about what he had in mind, but this was meant to be a civilized battle for sport. However, another idea came to him. His flesh side grinned slightly. Of course, it was going to be very dangerous (for Marya, and this was a battle, so danger was an integral part of the equation), but at least it wasn't an automatic death sentence.
   Begin structural scan sequence, he thought.
   He then flew a circle around the building, his eye mapping out the apartment complex inside and out. After the pass, he had a full 3-D schematic of the building superimposed over the real building in his vision. Identify and mark load-bearing points. Some components of the schematic acquired targeting squares around them, with information brackets. The supports holding the building up. And now...
   The Mechangel then maneuvered to one of the adjacent buildings. As he flew up to the wall, he turned and jabbed his metal leg and arm behind him. The limbs plunged into the building, anchoring him in place. Since he was in a sort of crouching position, perched on the side of the building, his mechanical knee was bent, and his thigh was roughly parallel to the ground. His kneecap then folded open, and a barrel quite a bit bigger than his pulse blaster ones slid out. He had calculated the spot he was in carefully. He let his electronic brain take over the targeting. His leg shifted slightly as the targets were lined up.
   Bracing himself, the Mechangel fired a heavymetal slug at a velocity in excess of that of sound from his railcannon. His leg was slammed back into the building he was perched on from the massive recoil, his metal body leaving an impression. The slug tore clean through the building Marya was in as if it wasn't there. At the carefully calculated angle, the slug ripped right through several of the building supports. There was a crunching sound, and cracks appeared on the rooftop of the building.
   Pleased, the Mechangel took to the wing again to reposition along another side and knock out more supports of the partially-weakened building.

[Sunblink]

...Piix:

Down the hallway, not far from Stygian, the bronze doorknob of one of the doors twisted, jostling the conspicuous "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging off of its neck. A moment later, the door swung open, and Piix stepped out, adjusting the golden collar supporting the front of her top. Her clothing was askew and a few articles were missing; particularly the long-sleeved shirt underneath her top and the golden bands that would festoon her arms. In addition, the sash around her waist was falling apart, as she had tied the knot very loosely. She looked as though she had gotten dressed in a hurry, but the absent aspects of her apparel could easily be blamed on her obvious inebriation. Her hair was mussed and disheveled, and a sizable, but empty bottle formerly housing an exotic liquid was dangling from her hand.

Piix giggled obscenely to herself as she closed the door behind her. She was just taking a minor reprieve to fetch some more Issalyune Illidisin - she and Pal had easily depleted the supply of her favorite beverage inside their room. Although she was more than slightly drunk, she wanted to take a breather and stretch her legs. Piix grinned stupidly to herself, pivoting on her heels, and ambled with an intoxicated, swaggering gait down the hallway, heading straight for Stygian.

[Stygian]

The machine seemed a bit puzzled for a couple of milliseconds, then made a snerking sound and leaned in a little toward the elf, making an appearance of trying, and failing, to look serious.
   ':no, i meant with him. you got him to shut up and just leave, no hard feelings. how did you do that?' she asked, trying on a sound like a chuckle afterward.
   Of course, in the background she was running the probable lines of conversation with Sylvie's inquiry as to what Andrea had done and how, and caching it.

- -

Still mostly lost in his thoughts, Stygian looked up for a moment to assess the form of Piix exiting her and Pal's shared room and heading for him. He frowned for a moment at her clothing, then passed his gaze to her top, narrowed his eyes, and then put on a wicked though distraught smirk. Then he turned his eyes away, as though expecting the Orin to pretty much vanish once she didn't have his attention, and stepped up to his door, unlocking it with a clack. They had no business, really.
   When he was halfway through the door though, he noticed that she was still moving toward him, so swinging it open a bit further and leaning around it, he looked down at the little creature.
   'Yes?'

[Sunblink]

...Piix:

The little she-alien was swaggering and stumbling aimlessly, clearly struggling to remain in place, even as she looked up at Stygian with all the unabashed confidence that she could muster in such inebriation. After a moment, her face went blank. "Hey. Don' I know ya' from somewhere?" her voice was garbled in a drunken slur. "Y'... y' look kinda familiar, like..."

Piix perked up almost instantaneously, her face brightening with intoxicated recognition. "Oh yeah! Y' were tha' smokin' hot furless guy a' th' bar! How're ya doin'?!" Piix leaned in slightly, expectantly, probably bypassing the radius that would be considered socially acceptable or polite. She flashed him a lopsided leer, only for it to fade away into confusion. "Fuck, y'... y'look so glum. Why're y' so glum? An' since when were there three o' y'?"

[Angel]

Sylvie blinked at the machine's sarcastic question at first, then bit her lip as she fought off a small smirk. "Oh, that. I was just talking to him; he decided to leave on his own. Pretty sure I had nothing to do with it, so I'm not the best to ask if you're looking for advice." She gave up trying to hold back the minor grin, and took a sip of her juice again, secretly trying to reassure her nagging thoughts that she really wasn't the reason he'd left. She was telling the truth when she said she wasn't sure, but there was always the chance...The mild amusement passed, and her brain refocused on her earlier question.

"Anyway. It seemed like you knew Andrea earlier. What exactly was it that she did to Dani? One second she was fine, then she wasn't moving. And whatever she was doing to hypnotize her, it wasn't like anything I've seen back home."

[Stygian]

Very nearly sighing, Stygian stepped out fully from behind the door, preparing himself for having to pick up the little creature and place her off somewhere else. It was more than evident what she had been doing, besides drinking, and what mood she were in. He knew that odd, slightly venomous but intoxicating smell now. Yet somehow, like before downstairs, he just couldn't fathom that Piix's behavior might be a come-on.
   One of Stygian's many flaws was an incurable way of trying to perceive things as more complex or deep than they actually were, often searching for intentions or hidden motives that weren't even there. A habit he had developed through his work and rather uncomfortable social life. And one he was aware of. Yet he could simply not bring himself to quit it, at most times; it was in his backbone. And together with the shred of a sense of decency he had and his mood, it was far more than enough to curb the other thoughts that passed through his mind at the sight of the little creature, some wicked and others just twisted.
   'Miss, you might want to consider your situation a little closer', he said, pointedly avoiding to state the obvious that she was drunk and ought to mind herself more, and keeping still despite her intrusion on his personal space, though he had to bend his neck a good bit to look straight down at her. And perhaps he spoke a little too harshly. 'I am far more well off than you. I think you should go back to your room', he went on, placing a hand on her shoulder and gently turning her around, though it was more difficult than he'd expected with her being strong for such a little creature and her swaying balance, 'and we can speak later if you wish to.'

- -

':/mind control', Sahlena said, not missing a beat. Her voice had dropped into a matter-of-factual, serious tone without a hitch. No reason not letting the elf know, or being too humane until you had to make the real explanations. ':mental stasis caused by pattern-induced pervasive signal blockage or process interference from an overpoweringly and probably chemically boosted organic transceiver in the form of a highly developed, reinforced and exceedingly powerful complex nervous system capable of interpreting any set of electric impulses approximating a thought process and "interfacing" with any nervous system close enough in composition and design to its own.'
   The machine took a sip of her drink, sighed, and then looked at the elf jadedly.
   ':it means that the shrew can hear others' thoughts and send out her own to overpower them, because her brain and the rest of all the nerves in her body have developed in some extreme kind of way, making them almost like some sort of biological control device. she can probably even mess with peoples' heads to cause lasting damage, or just trap them in their own thoughts.' She shook her head subtly, then sipped again, and made a metallic, muttering sound. ':quite a bitch, innit?'

[Sunblink]

...Piix:

Piix merely looked at Stygian in a blunt portrayal of confusion before he turned her around, making her brain spin and whir excitedly in her head. If he was being harsh, his tone clearly wasn't registering in her mind - neither were the depth of his words; they were all just unintelligible, garbled jargon. Inebriated as she was, the sudden change of direction disoriented her, and Piix blinked wearily. "Mmka'," she groaned affirmatively, suddenly feeling unnaturally burdened. In spite of the invisible weight bearing down on her, Piix started to try and walk off, dragging that oversized bottle of alcohol with her.

She didn't even get one step before she felt the world come crashing on top of her, and, in accordance to this, tipped over, landing, back-first, on Stygian's arm. One of her sizeable quills embedded itself in the flesh of his arm.

[Stygian]

It was as if a shudder ran through both their bodies, for just an eyeblink, and then Stygian's gaze veered unerringly against the wound in his arm. Right through the cloth. Those spikes were sharp. And he felt a painful tingle. He shook his head, then balanced out Piix's weight against him.
   'Okay, get up...' he said, pushing the little alien away and removing the spine lodged in him with a sense of irritation and impatience. This time, he put his arms to her sides and actually lifted her, walking down the hall toward the door she had previously exited, ignoring the pain as the wound closed. 'If we go on like this I'll end up bloody having to lecture you, and I don't want to do that, much less think I have the... right... to...'
   Suddenly, Stygian silenced and slowed to a halt. Something was wrong. Feeling a twinge run up his arm, he set Piix down, relaxing and looking at his limb, telling himself he was imagining things. His hand though, was trembling. He was looking at it, trying to make it hold still, and it just shook more.
   'What did you do?' he asked, tension suddenly in his voice. Pulling his arm out of the sleeve of his coat and pulling up the shirt, he looked at it. Black veins, slowly creeping out under his skin and actually making it writhe, were fanning out all over his forearm, and shooting up toward his shoulder. Already, his skin was taking on a dark ashen color in blotches, like ink spreading on paper, and his nails extending. It didn't hurt, strangely, but with that tingling and shivering feeling all over it couldn't be good. Immediately, he pressed his free hand down right above his elbow joint, trying to shut the main artery. The blackness just wriggled on by, speeding up through his shoulder, his muscles flexing and clenching.
   'What the shit did you do?!' he snapped, and this time he barked enough that Piix was able to notice. Eyes starting to seethe in that sickly green color, he looked down at the Orin even as he craned his neck as if his head were trying to get away from the dark lines running up the side of his throat.

[Sunblink]

...Piix:

Piix flinched at Stygian's response - the volume and intensity of his accusation definitely registered, in spite of her drunken behavior. Suddenly fearful, she abandoned the empty bottle of her beloved beverage and scuttled away from Stygian, backing into a wall. "I - I didn't do anythin'!" she exclaimed defensively, ears flattening against her head. She finally noticed the wound in his arm, and the corruption crawling underneath his skin. "O - Or a' leas' I didn't MEAN t'..."

[Stygian]

Snarling, Stygian shuddered, and took a step against the little alien, his movements shaky but still dangerous. A single line of black was reaching out onto his cheek and his fangs were bared.
   'Well, I promise you', he said, clawed hands tensing as he approached her, 'that if you don't fi-'
   The man blinked, and his eyes seemed to almost flicker as he stopped, the glow in them focusing into tight little points. One of them went on twitching for a while, the muscles around the obsidian orb spasmodically trembling for about a second. And his expression smoothed out into dumbstruck surprise, the whole of his form absolutely still.
   'Oh.'
   Piix had just the time to edge a little further along that wall before his eyes flared up again, and a wicked grin, unlike anything she had seen or expected from hitherto, slid onto his face. Skin still squirming, black tendrils crawling and circling around his wounded arm, his gaze focused on her once more. His teeth seemed like knives.
   'Oooohhh you', he rasped, taking a slow step toward her. 'You. You, youuu...' He raised a hand, rolling and clenching it, then pointed his index finger at her. 'This. See? Yes. Yes! You!' He laughed, shortly at first, but then harder just before he could speak again. And then more, the insanity of the sound heightening. He barely seemed to be able to control himself. 'You! I feel! I feel it! This...!' Another laugh, and something crawled down the back of his neck. 'Oh, thissss! Yes! I need!' His eyes flickered back and forth, and then locked, straight on Piix, his expression going blank for a fraction of a second.
   'I need. This. You.' He grinned again, eyes flaring, raising his hand. 'Now.'
   A shadow, perfectly straight and without anything to cast it, shot out against the Orin across the floor like an arrow, and before she could react, something snagged Piix's ankle. She was swept right off her feet, lifted into the air by a tentacle thick as two arms, rising right up out of the floor, and swung back across the hallway along with Stygian, who glided over to the door to his room. She barely had time to see his still grinning face before she was hoisted through the doorway.
   'This will be fun.'
   The door slammed shut behind them, and a silence so complete that it could only be purposeful settled.