+2 Disaster Siblings

[impossumble]

It's post-dusk in the Nexus, but it's not a particularly foreboding night. It's one of those too-humid summer nights where the sky looks deep blue and the lamplight looks orange, and you can't hear yourself think for the sounds of crickets and cicadas, and you think you might just go to bed early, but then you realize it doesn't get dark until nine in the evening so you're already up late.

Two dark figures with pale, shimmery hair are wandering down the main thoroughfare. One, shorter (much shorter) and curvier, is chattering alongside the song of bugs and nightingales:

"...and that's a really good reason not to become a mindflayer if you ask me. Especially for you. You'd never be happy just eating one thing."

The larger of the pair is just following indulgently for the moment, but there's a definite hint they're both prowling. Or maybe they just always look like they're prowling, because drow.

"So I think anywhere that has lights on and will take our gold is probably worth trying, anyway. Hells, anything but more wine. I'm never gonna touch rosymorn red again. It's always going to smell like fried kobold to me. What do you want to--hey!"

That 'hey' may be slightly intimidating, despite the little she-drow's size. It's a very enthusiastic greeting directed at whoever is approaching. "Hey! Where's the best place to eat here? My brother's gonna starve if I don't get him something sugary, stat."

Neither of them is going to starve, but her puppy eyes are moderately convincing at least?

((B and Kiwi here with our Baldur's Gate 3 chaos twin Tavs. Replies may come from this account or from trashpandastic, feel free to PM with questions!))

Comments

Open to threadjacking obvs

[trashpandastic]

"Silks, anything but more wine if I see another bottle of red anything I'm like to lose my lunch." Ferris was perfectly content to amble along with his whirlwind of a twin, letting her take point on focusing on where they were going while he was busily looking all around, like the gawking traveler he was here.

"This place is definitely different than anything we've seen so far back home, even for a surface town."

[impossumble]

He is the rogue, she is the warlock. Non-magical perception is not her department, so it may actually be up to him to make sure no one's sneaking up on them. Luckily, for them and for everyone else, the non-violence field is there to prevent muggings.

Mugging drow never ends well.

"It's like a dozen different places stitched together," she agrees. "Only, I've never seen a place quite so calm. You'd think that with more people there would be more violence."

[trashpandastic]

As if he'd let anyone do something as ridiculous as try and mug his sister. No way, no how.

"Maybe the guard here is really effective?" He mused, gaze sliding over a brightly lit window display as they rambled past it. "Or there's some sort of magic protection we haven't seen."

[impossumble]

"I don't see any guards, though!" Her eyes light up. "Unless they're invisible."

Dot, no. "Do you think that would make them more or less effective? Because sometimes you stop doing something because a guard might be watching, sure, but maybe the uncertainty would make everyone so on edge they just wouldn't do anything bad."

She comes to a halt in front of a display of accessories, gaze caught by the hair ornaments. There are cat ears. Pink cat ears. "...hey, Fer? Can we go in there?"

[trashpandastic]

"They can catch more people in the act if they're invisible..." Excuse Ferris as he frowns at the area around them. The scar definitely makes it way more intimidating than he has any real right to be. But he sees no sign of invisible guards- but then that's the whole point! So he gives that up in time to almost plow into Dot when she stops, doing a graceless little hop-skip to both avoid running into her, and to avoid faceplanting on the pavement.

He's definitely brought up short at the sight of the glittery pink ears though. "Absolutely."

He needs to see how ridiculous those look on her.

[impossumble]

If they were in the Underdark, she would have been telling, not asking. Even with your brother, a woman has to be commanding. Then again, no one would be selling cat ear tiaras in the Underdark. Dot grabs his hand eagerly and tugs him unnecessarily towards the door.

"Maybe they have something for you, too. Not cat ears...maybe little tiefling horns?"

A bell jingles when they open the door. Inside, there's a fruity, flowery smell like cheap perfume.

[trashpandastic]

Clearly this place, like so much of the surface, was miles better than where they'd started out.

"You think so?" Ferris huffed out a low noise of amusement as he lets Dot's grasp tug him along into the bright, cheerfully colorful shop. And really, the cat ears aren't nearly the only, or most bedazzled thing in the shop. It's all a little overwhelming, but in a way that has him grinning rather than upset.

[impossumble]

Weird, but better!

She blinks in the light of a thousand rhinestones, with a look of slowly dawning delight. Oh, oh this is even better than she realized! "We should get presents for everyone," she whispers.

Then, remembering the cat ears, she lets him go and makes a beeline for the window display.

[jarheadclan]

Jake's used to watching out for shorter folk here, but he damn near misses these two in the dark, no bioluminescence to mark their forms against the shadows, not like the softly glowing white dots that pattern his own skin. Not that he couldn't hear them, of course; anyone being that loud in the jungle is going to find themselves on the wrong end of a pack of nantang in short order.

He peers down at them, tail twitching lazily, ears perked forward attentively. He's perfectly at ease in the dark and the syrupy-humid heat of the summer night, even if the city scents lack the freshness of green growth and rich soil that he's used to. "Starve, huh?" he says, big golden eyes flicking to the poor wretch in question. "Can't have that. I know a place, shouldn't be too far from here, 's long as it hasn't got up and moved." He laughs, but he's not actually kidding. They do that sometimes. "Either of you scared of heights?"

[impossumble]

Most people are taller than Dot. Hell, even Ferris is taller than Dot, and being a drow he's not exactly scraping the sky, himself. Jake is a cut above, however. She legit thought he was a tree until he moved, and spoke. Her head tilts back, eyes wide in the low light, with slightly-creepy scarlet eyeshine, but the expression that blooms on her face is nothing short of delight.

"Why, are you going to pick us up??" ...wow. Hello to you too! I mean, he did ask about heights and as far as she's concerned, he counts.

"Are Tabaxi usually blue?" This might be a question addressed to Ferris rather than Jake. Dot is very excited about this encounter, okay? "I thought they were mostly yellow or brown?"

[trashpandastic]

Bioluminescence was a familiar enough thing- plenty of plantlife both stationary and mobile had some manner of it in the Underdark. The drow tended towards the other end of the spectrum. In the dark, if dressed in the typical fashion, the twins could have all but melted into the shadows.

At least if they could've kept their mouths shut for more than thirty seconds at a time, that was.

"He probably could, come to think of it," Ferris mused, first to Dot before his cheerful commentary was turned towards Jake. "You look pretty strong!"

The question about Tabaxi had him humming thoughtfully a moment, with a thoughtful frown. "I'm not sure? I mean... they kinda share similarities with cats right? I can't say I've ever seen a blue cat, but that doesn't mean they don't exist, right?"

[jarheadclan]

"Wasn't planning on it," he says, flicking the tip of his tail in amusement. They're not wrong though, he absolutely could pick them both up, and easily. Even though the gravity in the Nexus is stronger than back home, it's never seen fit to bother him. A more scientific mind would want to know how that could be the case, but Jake? If it works, it works. "Seats might be a bit high up for you 's all."

He has the vaguest idea what a cat is - that's the littler version of a tiger, right? he saw that on the news once - but Tabaxi is an all new word on him. "I don't have fur either," he adds helpfully. That's probably the same, right?

[impossumble]

"Seats?" Dot takes a moment to untangle this, because she's now picturing a giant treehouse full of blue Tabaxi. A few years ago, that would have been a horrifying mental image, but...well. Circumstances change, and minds open.

"Oh, because the chairs are sized for you? That's fine, we don't mind that!" She is, perhaps, slightly too familiar with a stranger, because she circles around a little to get a look at his tail. She doesn't try to touch, though, hands clasped behind her back.

"We just got here," she explains. "So if you're not from our world, we'd have no frame of reference. But I've actually never seen a Tabaxi either, only pictures. But well met, whatever you are! You can call me Dot. My brother's name is Ferris."

[jarheadclan]

It's been a while since a stranger has been so forward about ogling him, but it's not the first time, either. First at Hell's Gate during the first calibration check, then Mo'at shortly thereafter. At least Dot isn't yanking on his tail like the old tsa'hik had, a gesture he's since seen only to discipline naughty children. He turns his head a little to watch her when she disappears behind his back, but even if she were so inclined to jump him, he's pretty sure he could take her in a fight, so he doesn't move much more than that.

Turning his head the other way to catch her on the upswing as she circles back around toward the front, he gives her a friendly grin, baring sharp fangs, gaze flitting back to the other drow as well. "Never seen anything like you either, except in old movies. I'm a Na'vi. The name's Jake."

[impossumble]

In a fair fight, he could absolutely take her, although it's rare that she would fight fairly. Especially with her rogue brother at her side. What's the point? But the last thing they're interested in right now is trouble, they have enough of their own. Snacks are the priority.

"We're drow. From the Underdark, only we left there a few years ago." Does she know what movies are? No. Is she going to let on? Also no. "Even if our kin are around where you come from, they probably wouldn't live in the same areas. Which is...definitely safer for everyone."

[willoftheblackbird]

The approaching man was hovering, magically, a couple of inches off the ground. Despite what one of them was insisting about her brother, the stranger they'd stopped looked far closer to starvation than either of them. He looked like a human born with an elf's general build, but with far too much height to pull it off.

"There's a tavern-like place not too much farther from here." He pointed weakly in the direction he was going. "I am... performing there tonight. You are welcome to come with me, but I'd like to keep moving. I would rather not have to cast another fly spell."

Unconsciously, he touched the blue crystal jewelry that adorned his ear. It was part of a matching set - pendant, belt and bracers too. All of the jewelry had an otherworldly aura to it. (And if they can detect magic, would glow like a beacon in the night...)

"They are... costly."

[impossumble]

Unfortunately, the first thing Dot thinks of when she sees a scrawny floating person is mindflayer. When you have one of their larvae in your skull, they tend to be on your mind. Literally and figuratively. Thus, her reaction is a little more defensive than it would normally be, one hand going behind her back to curl into a half-fist, readying a spell.

Best for all concerned, really, that the anti-violence field sees fit to put a damper on her magic, but she's making sure she's between the stranger and her brother, regardless of how delicate he looks.

"...what kind of performance are you doing?" She studies him with a wary little frown, but the lack of tentacles has her second-guessing herself. Maybe he's okay?

[willoftheblackbird]

Fortunately, the Prophet was no mindflayer. Not a single tentacle to be found. (Though, he did have quite a bit of magic that could affect the mind, he wasn't using any of that right now. Flying takes a fair bit of concentration.)

"Singing, mostly..." though he did gesture to a three-stringed violin he had hanging over his back. "I will admit, I am a little out of practice on the kontra."

[trashpandastic]

Oh, were they going to be wary here? Too bad the mention of performance had any thought of carefulness leaving Ferris' head the second the stranger mentioned singing, and produced his instrument. Just gonna... nudge a bit closer, practically hanging off the back of his sister's shoulder with a grin.

"Are you a bard then? I've always liked them, but definitely like the surface bards better than the ones from... well." They were much less murderous, for one. If he'd been a bit more inclined towards murder, Ferris would have been an excellent bard in the Underdark. But as he was? No, not as much.

[willoftheblackbird]

He nodded, offering a smile. "It's rare that I get to simply perform anymore... I am never in this realm for very long, so I try to make the most of it."

Perhaps, had life taken a different turn, he would still be singing and dancing by the fire every night. He'd been taken in as a child and trained as a tribal storyteller. But instead, he found himself a very unlikely leader.

"I am known as The Prophet. Leader of Kuro." he introduced himself politely. "Do you have names?"

[impossumble]

Dot relaxes her fist when her brother drapes himself over her shoulder. Sometimes he's an idiot about meeting new people, but she's decided he has the right idea this time. Ferris has as keen a sense for fun as he does for good snacks.

"You can call me Dot," she says. "It's a nickname, technically, but I like it better than my given name."

"My brother is Ferris. We're a little new here, but we'd like to see you perform, I think."

[trashpandastic]

He can absolutely be a bit silly about new people and situations. At least it tends to end well, especially with Dot around to help if things do go sideways.

But tonight it seems to be going just fine!

"Nice to meet you," He considers the options, head tilting slightly. "Why don't we tag along? You've got a performance to get to after all, and taverns tend to have food, right?"

[ahorriblejournal]

All in all it was a lovely evening. Dot might notice, after a few moments, the rapid plip-plap of footsteps behind them. If she turns to look?

Nothing more than a simple, white goose standing on the path, head tilted slightly to peer at the drow with one glossy black eye.

[impossumble]

She lags a little after a while, because Ferris has longer legs, but that doesn't bother her much. He'll never leave her fully behind, and vice versa. Still, when she hears those little noises, she pauses and turns without saying anything to him.

At least, she doesn't say anything at first. Seeing the goose, she crouches down a little, putting her hands on her knees as if to look at it from close to its level. "Awww, look at you! Who's a handsome birdy?"

[ahorriblejournal]

If it hadn't been just the two of them, Ferris' ranging would have taken him a bit farther. But alone as they were, he tended to keep generally in sight. Which was a bit farther than most could manage in the dim of the evening, but darkvision was a useful thing in that sense.

Which meant for the moment it was effectively just Dot and the goose, who patted along on little feet a bit closer as the drow crouches near. Drawing up a couple inches at the admiring compliments, giving their head a quick shake and a beat of wings as if to show off that it was them, they were incredibly handsome, thank you! A paragon of goose-kind! They must be, someone even tied a ribbon around their neck in a lovely bow!

And if this meant they could subtly examine Dot in kind... well did she have any snacks? Anything shiny? Anything that it looked like she'd yelp should they be able to snatch it?