[nWoD] Hex, the beta adventure!

"Got lost after the party last night, did ya?" Mike's manner remains cheerful, as though this happens all the time. "You're at the Central University, in the northern quad. If you need a ride home, your best bet's heading towards the bus station over that-a-way." He jerks his thumb over his shoulder towards one of the lager gaps between buildings, where a similar grassy area can be seen, with a few more trees that don't entirely hide a modern public transport bus. "Might have to wait a while, though, not much runs this early on a Sunday."

 

"We are a little more lost than that. What city is this?"

 

Around this point, Olivier catches up- but, angry though she is at the situation, she hasn't survived all she has by lacking impulse control. The strange creature seems to be managing the conversation in... her, by the voice... own way. Instead of continuing to shout, then, she simply takes up a position beside and slightly behind the creature, with her left hand resting conspicuously on her sword. Glaring at the guard.

The creature may choose to play nice, but Olivier feels that the consequences of not choosing to play nice with her ought to be made apparent.

 

Mike glances at the sword, briefly, before turning his attention back to Katters. "Out-of-towners, huh? We don't see many of you around these days, since the old industrial district shut down." If he thinks there's anything weird about out-of-towners not knowing what city they're in, he doesn't show it. "This is Hex, specifically the Central District."

 

Katters’ smile turns into a grin. “Thanks,” she says. She is tempted to ask for a country, or even planet, but decides against pushing her luck. It probably doesn’t matter, anyway. She’s never heard of ‘Hex’, so she’s more than thirty miles away from Ripton, even if she’s in the same reality as her home.
She turns away from the guard and, seeing Olivier’s hand on her sword, gives her an incredulous look. “He said there’s a bus we can take over that way,” she relays, in case Olivier didn’t hear it. She hopes Nat followed them over, too, but has no reliable way to tell.

 

"Where does the bus even go?" Nat asks carefully. "How do we know we won't just get even more lost?"

 

Even though Katters was anticipating Nat’s presence, she’s still startled at the sudden “appearance” of Nat’s voice, and she jumps.
“I don’t think ‘more lost’ is possible, really,” she says. “But that’s a good point. Still, I can’t imagine there’s much for us on a college campus, so at least waiting for a bus while we figure things out wouldn’t necessarily hurt.”
Her ears twitch as a thought occurs to her. “I wonder what currency they take.”

 

"I don't have any kind of money. I usually just sneak on." She really can't bring herself to feel bad about it. "So, I'm not with you, okay?"

 

“Tall order.”

 

Mike waves at them slightly before turning the engine of the cart back up and motoring away, going about halfway around the quad and disappearing somewhere on the other side of the tree.

 

"The bus doesn't interest me," Olivier grumbles. "But if we're the only outsiders here, there must be some reason. What are you?" This is addressed not only to Katters, but also to the last place she heard the voice- humans are typically visible, in her experience.

 

"Wow, rude."

 

"Yeah," Norm said. "I think the question is supposed to be, 'who are you?', not 'what are you?'."

The military woman reminded him of Jorgen Von Strangle, and he'd never really liked Jorgen Von Strangle.

 

Rude, is it? Olivier laughs at that. "I'd like to know that, too," she says. "But the reasons why you're floating and invisible are likely much more useful."

 

"More useful," Norm repeated sarcastically. "More useful. So you meet a genie and you just have to ask how useful he is? Well, I suppose that's typical..."

 

Okay, Oliver's tolerance for sass isn't that high on the best of days, and mysterious abductions plus the constant ache of still-healing bones haven't helped. She rounds on Norm with fire in her eyes.

"I haven't lived as long as I have by ignoring any advantage," she snaps. "If you prefer to be useless, I'll direct my questions to the others and you can go ahead and fall prey to whatever plans those who brought us here may have."

 

Katters wasn’t really offended before, but now that Olivier apparently doesn’t think she’s useful, she kind of is. And she’s annoyed that she’s offended.
She counts the party off on her fingers. “Reptile, genie, invisible girl — someone here’s an outsider and evidence isn’t pointing at us,” she says. “Are you sure you’re human?”

 

Norm was taken aback by that. "Well, I prefer not to be thought of as just an advantage, dame. I mean, yeah, falling prey to shit is bad but... could you try to treat me like a person first and an advantage second?"

 

Honestly, not mentioning Katters had mostly been out of a desire for pithiness. "Being scaly and toothy" isn't very snappy of a thing to say.

"I know I'm not a 'dame'." This is considerably less hostile than her previous comment, now that the... genie...? seems to get the point. At Katters she's not even angry- if she's inclined to be suspicious, that's a good thing under the circumstances. "And I know that however quiet things appear, hostile territory is not a place for bickering. We can't make any plans unless we know our capabilities, so when I ask what you are, that is what I need to know."

 

“Hostile territory? The trees been biting you while my back’s turned?” Katters crosses her arms. “Well, if you absolutely must know, I’m a ket. I’m sure that means a lot to you, and will come in very handy with all the strategising you plan on doing against Mike back there,” she jabs a thumb in the direction the security guard went. “I just know I’ll be happy to be a part of it.”