Trax Tavern {Storm's a-brewin': Check events}

[shruikan]

"Tribal Wolf? Where the hell are those from? Never heard of them." Square turned her attention to the incubus with his back turned on both Larka and herself. "Careful Zeren..." She wasnt sure if she was worried for him or for what he could do to this Tribal Wolf.  

[DarkWolfLove]

Larka waved her hand in dismissal. "They're myths. Closest to our ferals as it can get. With all the travelin' and discoverin' the kingdoms do now, there aren't anymore of our kind who've been untouched. For those of us who can still shift into feral forms, we still get that feeling of wanting to run forever and never look back." She shrugged as she worked, all too knowing of how easy it is to slip back into nature. She almost went herself, some people would say she did, but her mind was still there.

 

[shruikan]

"Ahhh. I see." Square flicked her ears, listening, but there didnt seem to be any further disturbances. "Welp, I'm gonna go take a bath." She said, nosily scooting her chair back and carrying her plate to the bar. "I'll wash it later." She told Larka and headed for the steps.

As soon as she was out of sight, Squares expression turned to one of deep concern. Larka's words echoed in her mind. Shifting into a feral form... For some reason the thought of that brought a shiver of fear down her spine... and twinge of excitement. Is this why I've been feeling this way? She thought. Am I.... becoming feral? The thought of losing her conscious self was alarming. She hit the top of the first landing without realizing it. She stood there, lost in thought. The sudden sound of dishes clinking downstairs snapped her out of her trance like thoughts. Realizing where she was, she continued up the rest of the way.  

[Zeren the Morph]

Larka's words offered little assurance as he ducked back in, once more manning the bar like the workaholic habit it is. Ferals and the concept of slipping back to one's nature... Not so familiar with the former, but every day was a familiar struggle for Zeren in regards to the latter. Even for an ascended demon like himself, he was still plagued by carnal urges and a constant, lingering sense of loneliness that no intimate company could completely sate. Comes with the territory of technically being a holy creature, now. A conscience and a soul of his own to perpetually guilt him of his true nature. To strive to become better than it.

So he married his work. Took his mind off the dull ache in his heart. So did the free booze that inevitably came with the job. He looked up, realizing that Square was gone. Lord knows she didn't need protecting, her being much stronger than the feeb he is, but that didn't mean he still didn't feel protective of the staff here, sometimes. A brief moment of panic quickly subsided when he realized she mentioned something about getting a bath. Of course, she smelled like Shrui.

"Ferals? You mean there's still people who can do that?" He asked Larka, busying himself dusting the remainder of the bottles.  

[DarkWolfLove]

Larka nodded at Square, and popped another delicious strip of tuna into her mouth. She offered one to the Gator, but her mind seemed occupied as she passed by in what seemed like a distracted thought. The she-Wolf shrugged and put that piece in her own mouth again.

Another nod, but this one directly at Zeren. "Well, ferals are like the chickens, gulls, cats, dogs, and such that we still see around that haven't evolved into beings like us. There are shifters as well. Beings like us who can tap into their old feral nature and move back into that form. It's just a shift, sometimes. The advanced mind is still in there, so they think like a Fur, but they appear to be a feral." She knew because she could do it. "The problem is that if the mind is compromised, stress, sadness, anger, etc., that form might stick. And when that happens, the advanced mind we all here possess begins to slip away. But some Furs can do that without an extra feral form. Some just don't get 'touched'-" she made air quotes while the knife was in one hand and tuna scales covered her arms up to her elbows- "by what we can consider civilization and they remain in the feral mindset, without having the feral form. Can be very volatile."

 

[Zeren the Morph]

"Hmm. I see." He gave a nod to her as he sat down the last cleaned bottle on the shelf. "They must be rare, since I haven't ever seen anyone like that in my travels." He leaned on the bar and watched Larka. Being an herbivore, Zeren often wished he could eat meat. Roasted fish tasted heavenly, but it's hardly worth the dry heaves that entails the meal thirty minutes later. Still, can't get sick from at least watching the she-wolf fillet them.  

[DarkWolfLove]

Larka stopped licking her fingers of the tuna to stare at Zeren. "Anyone who? The wild folk? Or shifters?" If it was the latter, she'd be interested to show him a thing or two. If she could trust him. They're been working together for some time, but it was hard for her to trust again, wholeheartedly. Another piece in her mouth and she began work on the second tuna. When she helped herself to it, she worked much slower.

 

[Zeren the Morph]

He raised an eyebrow. "Both. Mostly just dealt with bandits. They're quite bad further south along the Avereanth Roads. The commerce routes stretch for hundreds upon hundreds of miles, virtually impossible for any kingdom to police. Brigands love ambushing folks on them. Of course, me and Lucienne took care of more than our share of them, back in her heyday." He thumped the weathered blunderbuss under the counter. "Heard about shifters, although not in much detail. Only been around this plane of existence what, ten years? Still learning, you know." He stuck out his tongue at her a little, a playful expression beyond that is difficult when you don't have the luxury of facial expressions.  

[shruikan]

Square let the tub fill up with hot water. She usually just took regular to cold baths but she felt the need to soak.

Undressing, she slipped in the water and tried to relax but all the talk about ferals kept resurfacing. What the hell am I going to do? She thought miserably, sinking low in the soapy water, the top of her nose, head and ears the only part visible. She needed to get that ocean stink off of her, stupid affectionate octo.... pus? Shrui! She could talk to Shrui, she did offer her advice. But then again what the hell would she know about any of this?

~

"Quite a lot actually." Shrui replied. Square was back in the basement. After battling with herself for 20 minutes she had gotten out of the bath, re-dressed into some real clothes (pants and clean top) and snuck down into the basement using one of the many secret passages that employees could use.
Square's ears swiveled forward in surprise. "Really? What do you know?" she asked as she rubbed at the new sucker mark Shrui left on her face from another greeting. At least she had been dry this time.
"Um, well nothing on a personal scale, just from stuff that I've read." she shuffled through her impressive book collection, selecting a volume. "This one is really good, it has pictures!" Her arms wiggled happily as she handed it over for Square to investigate.
Square paged through it the tome, mindful of her talon like claws on the delicate parchment. She found one of the pictures, it showed an anthro fox turning into what looked like a demon fox. "Um, are you sure this is right...?" she asked, tilting the book to show Shrui.
"That's just one example, some anthros are magical and can hone their ancestral gifts." Shrui replied in an almost dreamy voice, she had her head nestled in her arms on the table. "You're a chimera right? Maybe you have some magic?" She asked brightly.
To Square's knowledge she was not. "I don't think I am.... unless you consider being able to hold my breath for over an hour underwater "magical". Or the fact that I'm poisonous.... no... I think those are just regular "gifts" you get from being a hodgepodge of animals like me." She shrugged and kept paging through.
"Hmmm.... oh! Hey, check out the weres section. Its pretty neat! I didn't know practically any animal can be a were. Humans are so weird, being susceptible to magic and curses." Shrui giggled. Her tentacles becoming a mass of jiggly movement.
Square flipped through and found the chapter. The illustrations were pretty horrific. She looked over at Shrui with a bit of a concerned face. It didn't seem very funny to her.
"Can I... borrow this? I want to do more research." she asked.
Shrui eyed Square. "Promise nothing bad will happen to it?"
"I promise"
"No eating near it, no leaving it upside down open, no dog tagging the ears no-"
"Shrui, I promise! I will treat this book like its your first born if you want." Square said, getting exasperated.
Shrui cocked her head to the side, eyes squinted at Square. "Mmmm.... alright. Why are you so interested in ferals anyway?"
"Oh, I dunno. The topic came up today... and there might be one sniffing around the tavern so I thought some research might-"
"Really?! Here?! Why didn't anyone tell me? I'm going upstairs!" Shrui squeed and leapt up off her chair, making a beeline for the steps.
"Shrui! Wait!"
Shrui skidded to a halt, her tentacles flailing in front of her in a comical manner.
"What?"
"Promise you mention this to the others? Kay? It will be our little secret."
Shrui beamed. "Gotcha!" Then she promptly thundered up the steps, happily giggling as she went.  

[IosefKoranison]

((I hate not replying to an RP for so long. >_< Miss a bunch of stuff going on.))Iosef stood and stared at the beings in the bar for a while, turning away and flattening his back when they showed signs of noticing his presence. Especially the white and purple one. Female. A wolf? His stomach growled loudly, startling him from his thoughts. "Nnng...food...smell fish." He needed to get food...and they weren't likely to attack him for being not human. He didn't see a single human in the place. Well...he'd been around people before. Might as well go in...cautiously. He detached from the wall and walked slowly to the open door of the place, standing just inside. "Mmmg.....hi."  

[DarkWolfLove]

Larka nodded as she put another slice of tuna in her mouth. 'Last one,' she growled to herself mentally. Once she swallowed, she opened her mouth to say that bandits still make their way this far into the kingdoms, but several things were going on all at once.

Shrui was coming up the stairs, so something exciting must be happening. And another figure emerged in the doorway. The scent of Wolf and the wild filled her nostrils again. This was their mysterious visitor. The one "untouched". She set the knife down and walked around to the front of the bar, tentatively. She slowly walked forward, cautious and careful. "Hello," she replied to the scruffy looking male.

 

[shruikan]

It was at that moment Shrui decided to burst through the basement door, slamming it harder than intended into the wall as it suddenly opened.
"Where's the feral wolf?!" She exclaimed. She caught sight of the scruffy wolf, framed in the doorway. "Oh my goodness! It is true! HI!!" she flailed her arms in a shrui-greeting. Not realizing that her entire entrance would startle everyone in the room and possibly terrify the unknown wolf. To make it worse, she sprinted right at him, excited to greet him, not realizing he's probably startled and sees her as a threat.  

[IosefKoranison]

Iosef looked up at the flailing mass of tentacles and his eyes opened wide, he crouched and extended his paws, claws out and fangs bared. "GRRRR....."  

[DarkWolfLove]

Larka immediately moved from cautious to aggressive. She leaped between the octopus and the Wolf. Her eyes flashed and her hackles were raised high. Her lips bared large sharp teeth and her hands curled into vicious claws. She knew Shrui didn't mean to spook the Wolf and she knew the Wolf was just reacting, but there was no threatening the workers in her building. Or anywhere for that matter. These people were practically her family, at least the closest thing she had to it.

"Stand down, male. This is my territory. You will not win here."

 

[shruikan]

Shrui side-stepped just in time. Narrowly avoiding a mauling. "Ooh someone's in a cranky mood." She danced away, just out of reach. "And in need of a hair cut." She giggled and flailed happily.