nexus_crossings | Time for a big ol' Nexus Block party

Time for a big ol' Nexus Block party

On a sleepy summer morning a wonderful smell begins to waft throughout the Nexus. For those familiar with this place there can only be one explanation but for those new faces to the nexus this may be a strange thing: seeing so many people flocking toward the sweet and savory scents perfuming the Nexus.

There are a few tables set out this morning in the Plaza in front of a small cafe loaded with several carafes of coffee, a myriad of pastries from more than a few different worlds and cultures, and a large pan of eggs and sausage kept warm over a chafing dish. On either end of the table are disposable plates, cups, and cutlery as well as a few welcome pamphlets in a small container. Along the front of the tables is a hand made banner.

Meet and Greet

Manning the tables is Katsuya Suou, red apron on and a cup of coffee in hand. He looks far too cheerful for how early in the morning it is. It's always satisfying to put one of these on and see the throngs of different people stuck in line together to get their food and find a place to sit among the tables and couches nearby.

"Right then, is anyone hungry? I've got more than enough here for everyone so please mingle among yourselves or feel free to ask me anything you'd like."

((OOC: This thread is ALL ABOUT threadjacking and hopping. I encourage folks to tag on each other's comments and mingle rather than to reply only to me. This is a huge opportunity to have your characters interact with people they wouldn't have talked to before. Branch out! Meet new people! Scheme new schemes! Steal the last chocolate croissant!))

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glamour spells. Alec stares at his hands before nodding mutely to him.

"No Swamps huh? Swamp Things matter too." He nods, "I'm joking. I doubt there are a lot of swamp creatures like me, or plant elementals for that matter. That's what I do. I'm a plant elemental. I manage the green compared to the red and the black."

You can probably guess which one is the black. He nods, "Except I was human at one point. Not sure where I'd fit on the "fictional creatures" scale.

"You'd be surprised," Bigby says, and if he was human right now, he would shrug. "There's at least a couple talking trees at the Farm." The colors pique his interest, though, and he tilts his head slightly. Green is plants, red is apparently animals, black... "Black is decay?" he guesses. Where all things go at the end, of course.

Bigby has never really thought about there needing to be a scale to one's... Fableness. "Plenty of human Fables around, and those who've been something else before. Beast, for one. Guy still gets hairy when you piss him off. Maybe in Fabletown a guy like you'd draw some eyes, 'cuz of all the mundies, but on the Farm, I don't think anybody'd even blink."

"Refreshing."

He considers the idea of the black and how to explain, "Black is the Rot, Death and decay but it's been..." He frowns. It makes him uncomfortable, it feels violating to discuss it, "Human beings who end up becoming Avatars succumb to the will of their parliaments, some who don't either end up becoming legendary - or monsters. One of the black's avatars became a monster. And not...in a good way."

He pauses, "It's a long story. It seems interesting to be surrounded by other...strictly magical creatures."

Bigby can smell his discomfort, although he's not entirely sure why, until Alec explains further. "Hmm. Imagine that must be totally opposite your, er, green then." This guy seems very full of life to him, on multiple levels. He sure smells like wild nature and growing things, anyway.

He doesn't shrug exactly, but he's also not the type to push for stories unless it's important to his job. Fables who want their stories known usually tell 'em themselves. "Some of us've got longer stories than others."

"Considerably. He's...responsible for my predicament." And my wife's. He shakes his head and sighs, exhaling a massive expanse of oxygen, "...Dare I ask about yours? Would it be...insulting if I said "Big bad wolf"?

The wolf doesn't tilt his head or blink an eye. "Not an insult. It's been my name for a long time."

He can never tell how much someone's heard about him though. Even his fellow Fables don't always know the whole story, the real one anyway. "Which one've you heard?"

Alec has to think. There's the one he's heard and then there are the ones other Avatars have learned.

"You eat little red riding hood's grandmother then the woodcutter cuts you open to save her." ...I never thought I'd sympathize with the wolf. The wood cutter was essential and most forests accepted their relationships with human beings. Still. It did irk them.

Upon occasion.

"That's the dark one. There are a couple of others but that one in particular sticks out. There's also "You blow down the house" and the pigs sing a song about "who's afraid of the big bad wolf." Disney did that one.

Bigby nods his big shaggy head, the stories familiar, if lacking in detail. As embarrassing as the first incident was to lose, it still happened. "Yep. Woody's been a thorn in my paw ever since. Fabletown amnesty means none of us can be held legally accountable for any shit we did before the Exodus, but it doesn't make people forget."

The second story is a bit less dark, it's true. "Yeah, I did that one too. Didn't eat any of 'em, not for lack of trying. Colin still gives me shit about wrecking his house." There's a hint of fondness in his voice when he mentions the name, though; unlike the Woodsman, Bigby has a more friendly relationship with this particular pig.

"For what it's worth, I'm far more sympathetic to your plight then I ever was to the woodsman."

Even before he turned into the swamp thing, "AS essential as trees are to human beings...it still..."

Instincts man. Instincts.

"I have friendly sorts of relationships with humans like that. We end up being...allies of sorts."

Well, that's something he doesn't hear every day. Sure, Bigby didn't exactly have good intentions, back in the day, but he was hungry and intended to eat his prey like nature intended, so it's not like he was flat-out evil or anything. Not many Fables see it that way, but then there aren't a lot of wolves, either. Or other predators of any kind, really.

"Of sorts," he echoes in agreement. "Kinda funny sometimes where fate takes you, in the end. Folks you never thought you'd get along with, turns out they aren't so bad to be around. Can't change your nature, but there's a hell of a lot else that can."

Alec would disagree - but he's not the sort of person (being?) to try and approach Anton Arcane unless it's with a means to end him forever.

Then he thinks of the few...humans he knows. Matt Cable, Batman, Poison Ivy - and realizes there are more then he thought.

"...Good people around you. Even if you're in a...difficult situation."

"Yeah. A common enemy doesn't hurt, either. We don't always get along perfect, but nobody does. All we can do is our best."

"A common enemy?"

Alec can't raise an eyebrow but he manages to do so. If Bigby is watching he'll note his toes slightly root.

He may not see it, but 'my what big ears you have' is as accurate as the tales say, picking up the subtle sounds of topsoil being scratched and shifted.

"Right." Bigby forgets sometimes, that not everyone knows that part of the story. It's the one thing all Fables living in the mundy world have in common. "Nobody knows who the Adversary is, or where he came from. All we know is he conquered the Homelands and killed or drove out everyone in his path. His armies were everywhere, by the end. Goblins, devils, wooden soldiers. Hell, they even tried to con me into joining him once. Said no. Helped as many escape through the portals to the mundy realm as I could. Those that made it, well, they're Fabletown."

Something about the idea of a great evil driving people away soundsfamiliar and for one moment Alec is back in his green, back facing the rot. Back in the Gotham sanctuary of rot world...

He's dazed, staring into space but his body is a size bigger then it was, hands at his sides, braced to fight before the Nexus green reaches into his mind with a Come back Alec.

He retreats, shrinks a hair, "...I'm-

Sorry that sounded like something I had to deal with in my world. I think I was...there."

Bigby's seen plenty of unexpected transformations, so Alec's sudden shift has him stiffening in place, the fur on the scruff of his neck standing up as he bristles, reading that fighting stance on instinct before his conscious mind even catches up.

He doesn't quite relax when Alec comes back to reality, wariness in the set of his shoulders, but he consciously makes an effort to unfluff his fur a bit. Not like he's the first guy to have some kinda PTSD that Bigby's run into. "Don't worry 'bout it. Shit like that marks a person, Fable or no."

"...thank you." Alec shrinks himself another hair, "I hope I didn't startle you. The Red has always been an ally to the green and even if...things aren't that different."

He pauses, "...This battle with the adversary? Is he death?"

"Nah. No blood, no foul." Maybe not in the old days, but it's not the old days anymore. And that's probably for the best. Everybody could do with a little more forgiving around Fabletown.

The odd question makes Bigby pause. "Death? ...I suppose there's a chance he could be. His servants definitely tasted foul enough, but that could be all sorts of dark magics at work. No one who saw him ever made it back to tell the story, so we never found out."

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Time for a big ol' Nexus Block party

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