Sigil: The City of Doors

(Open, but expecting.)

Somewhere, in some far-off hidden places on the infinite planes, a Power was laughing at her; she was rather sure of it. Patron deity of lost things, and not the dead or unbelieving sort of lost things neither, but the truly lost. Like the half of every pair of socks that eventually goes missing, never to be found again. Common guess-work would have a berk think they'd gone and gotten sucked up through some planar conduit to the demi-plane of lost footwear of course. She had no cause to think otherwise, truth told. But it wasn't a sock she'd misplaced this time, and there was assuredly a limit to how many demiplanes of specific lost things she could imagine to be real.

"I swear," Sings-With-Purpose placed her hands on her hips as she stared across the room, "I keep telling her she won't get the most out of it so I don't know why she'd be inclined to keep borrowing it."

She struck quite a figure, standing there. Her dark hair and pale skin were rather the opposite of the expected celestial median, yet were perfect enough in their own manner that they seemed intrinsically a part of her upper planes heritage. And there always *was* that perfect glow about her, of course. In many a ward; most of 'em in fact; a berk with celestial blood in 'em would take care to hide such features, but she'd never seemed inclined to do so. If anything she just displayed it prominently without a care in the planes. The black jacket she wore certainly did nothing apart from drawing even more attention to her wherever she went; the illusions woven into it coming alive whenever she felt like it.

A sense of dramatic flair was important, after all.

"Now, maybe over here?"

Her side of the room had a bunch of instruments sitting there in the open. Drums, and a lute on her bed now. They were called the Lutensil, and the Keg of Drum. Or at least, that's what she'd referred to them as last week, but who knew whether that still sticked today? She regarded them with idle suspicion, as if worrying they might've come alive and hidden their compatriot from her somehow, before pretending to be mere lifeless instruments again. She kept her gaze fixed to them for some time before she looked up at the ceiling with a casual shrug.

"Tell me, snowglobe, where did my Ad Infinitum Syphon go?" she sighed, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a crystalline little trinket, shaking it about and causing an image to appear inside. It appeared to be some place with lava flows and thick plumes of smoke and sulfur pouring into the sky.

"Ah hells. One of them, probably. Or plane of fire, maybe?"

She plopped herself down on her bed, her eyes going wide a little as she realized the expected soft surface she was supposed to be resting on was not quite so soft. The Aasimar quickly got back up, and pulled the covers free to reveal her magical Bandore.

"Figures," Sings-With-Purpose said, smirking to herself, then started to wonder where Valeria had gone off to. They were supposed to grab some food downstairs, weren't they?

A series of light, all too energetic footsteps, heralded Valeria's return.

"I'm baaaaaaack!" Valeria announced herself brightly as the door swung open. Brightly being the key word; while Valeria lacked the supernatural glow that Sings had, she made up for it in a myriad of other ways. Naturally blonde, with skin a healthy pale (at least by human standards), and dressed from head to toe in rich blues, reflective whites, and shining silvers, Valeria had big morning person energy, even though it was late afternoon. Indeed, she'd already been cursed by any number of patrons whose hangover headaches had been made worse by her bright appearance. Or voice. Or personality. She'd just smiled and carried on, of course.

Tray in hand, Valeria stepped into the room, shutting the door behind her with a twirl, white skirt flaring, blue leggings underneath. While in some ways the two roommates were opposites, in others they were quite similar: if nothing else, they both had a taste for the dramatic. A few quick steps to set the tray down on the table, and, beaming at Sings, she lifted the lid, setting it aside.

"Savory sugar-biscuits! Elysium spices!" Valeria said, as enthusiastic as ever. "I think they'll be terrific with some tea. Shall I pour some?" A kettle was included on the tray.

Still smiling, Valeria began to walk about the room, pulling her rod from the light pack she wore (also bright blue). With little waves and sparkles of magic, she tidied up each item that had been moved out of place by Sings' search.

"There you are," she said as Valeria walked in with her energy. Sings had been sitting on her bed, strumming a few notes on her bandore before she stopped when Valeria started magically cleaning the place.

"Hey! I worked hard on getting the place messy!"

She rather liked things being a bit messy; in fact. Too much structure was stifling, after all.

"And anyway, I thought we were gonna eat downstairs?"

Chirper's might be a tourist trap in many respects, and two native cager cutters like Sings and Valeria were hardly the intended clientele, but the place had some *great* food. And people watching was just a bit more fun when the place you were doing it in was specifically designed to gather up as diverse a crowd as you were likely to find; even by Sigil standards.

"Still got that coupon?"

Valeria just laughed at that, a high musical laugh. It would be very easy for the laugh to be mocking, with just a little more oooohohohoho in it, but it was too good-natured for that. "But look how it shines now!" Valeria flashed a grin at her roommate. "Don't worry, you can mess it up again as soon as I turn around."

She tilted her head, frowning thoughtfully. "Oh, were we? Right, I forgot. When I was getting these, I was chatting with a Glabrezu. I told him he should visit my clinic, he told me I should kill myself, my family, and my pet. You know. The usual." Valeria gave an unconcerned shrug. Besides, she didn't have a pet. "We can eat these later." She replaced the lid over the tray.

Turning back to Sings, Valeria beamed once more. "Of course I do!" Another dramatic twirl, and she produced the coupon from her bag with a flourish. "Ta-daaaaaaa!" Still smiling, she offered the coupon to Sings. Her performance wasn't without irony; it was a fairly silly thing to be dramatic about, after all. Still, it was at least 60% earnest.

She gave the sparkly woman one of those smirking 'oh you' sighs. "Y'know, sometimes I wonder if you're barmier than a bleaker, going 'round talking to tanar'ri like that. 'Course, you'd likely fare better than me, in any case."

"They don't like me much for some reason or another," She said with a shrug, knowing full-well her celestial blood annoyed the hells, or abyss, out of the denizens of the lower planes.

"Anyway," Sings looked at the coupon with a thoughtful expression, "we best hurry on down there before they run out of the good cuts of stag and what not, don't you think?"

"You may share my cuts amongst yourselves if I may take your time at the grooming areas." There is a heavy footfall and a mechanical whirr and Ore pulls a chair up.


Rrrrrrerrrrrshunk

The sound is muffled as Ore sits, creaking into the chair. A mechanical bulldog laps at scraps on the floor to Ore's disapproving eye... things.

"Boy! You know that will gum up your internal workings!"

Taking full advantage of newfound success, Krol joins the warforged godsman at an establishment higher end than he is used to. However, in typical goblin fashion, he orders a dish which highlights the various parts usually thrown out. The term they used was "offal" but Krol just heard, actually affordable. He chuckled at the mechanical dog, and takes a moment to see the aura of the creature. Does the universe see it as a dog or a construct?

Sings-With-Purpose wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 20, 2023 3:45 pm

She gave the sparkly woman one of those smirking 'oh you' sighs. "Y'know, sometimes I wonder if you're barmier than a bleaker, going 'round talking to tanar'ri like that. 'Course, you'd likely fare better than me, in any case."

"They don't like me much for some reason or another," She said with a shrug, knowing full-well her celestial blood annoyed the hells, or abyss, out of the denizens of the lower planes.

"Anyway," Sings looked at the coupon with a thoughtful expression, "we best hurry on down there before they run out of the good cuts of stag and what not, don't you think?"

Valeria flashed her a decidedly cheeky grin. "I'll get one to sign up one of these days." She said.

The two stepped out, meeting Ore in the hall. "Hi, Ore!" Valeria addressed the warforged with her usual excess of cheer. And more or less the same greeting as they met Krol down in the dining area.

Tilting her head, she peered under the table at the mechanical dog, still smiling. Of course. "Awww, he's probably just bored." She tilted her head further, one hand coming up to touch her chin thoughtfully. "Does he chew bones? My mother had a dog that did. Well, sort of. Sometimes he'd just freeze them with his ice breath." Valeria frowned, looking away, over towards the serving area.

Sings gave the two other godspeople a casual wave and smile.

"I don't think that was a dog, Valeria," she said as she found herself a place to sit with a chuckle. At least, she'd never heard of a dog that had an ice breath, but then who knew what was out there in the infinite planes?

Anywhere but Sigil, and this group of people would make for a near-impossible sight. Even in Sigil there were places were this combination might stick out like a sore thumb. Chirper's catered to such a diverse clientele though that they might've seemed rather generic all things considered.

"You know, this place really is an overpriced tourist trap, but you can't beat the people-watching."

"Well, it was a sort of dog, anyway." Valeria said, a casual wave of her hand dismissing the distinction.

She perused the menu, frowning thoughtfully. "Right. Hmmm. I really did want to try the spiced slices again, even if the last one did make my tongue go numb." She cast Sings and Krol a smile each. "The two of you in? Ore, the usual?"

The comment from Sings made Valeria glance around quickly, then smile sheepishly, ducking her head down, just an inch or so. "Now I'm wondering if anyone's watching us." She said, her voice quiet but amused.