[IC] Nighthaze - The offical unoffical sequel to STOMP

[GodSentinelOmega]

Laughing happily, Scarlet accepts the hug. “So then, how is my favourite netru—?”

Kai’s unexpected responses(?) however, throw him off completely. Rendered speechless for a few seconds, Scarlet just lets the conversation flow over him. When he does finally shake himself back into motion, his hat falls off.

With a sigh and a shake of the head, Scarlet leans down to pick it up, using this brief moment to get his thoughts in order.

’ahem’

”Hello Kai. Like Hazy said, i’m Scarlet. Scarlet Spectrum, uh,” he hesitates for a half a second, then adds. “Junior. Nice to meet you.

Our families have basically been inseperable for years, thanks to the missdventures of our grandparents.” Scarlet chuckled as he thought of old stories and wild tales. Well, that and watching Hazys flirtiness.

In answer to her question, he said.

”Me? Oh, the usual. Mystery, treasure hunts, adventure, getting caught in the wrong place a few times.

And trying to keep my shop running smoothly. Antiques and Curiosities don’t always pay the bills. So i’m here for this. A challenge and the chance to earn some money brought me here. However, seeing you here means that things will likeky be a lot more fun than i thought.”

Then he saw the Snowsuit. Tilting his head, Scarlet arched an eyebrow.

”Are you okay?“

 

[Caldwin]

Hazy was about to reply to Alistair when Scarlet came in with his reply. She was about to reply to Scarlet when the arctic explorer came into the room. The spectacle made her forget all about the others. "Um...hello! What's your story? Get lost in a blizzard?"

 

[Copper Bezel]

"This one's prepared, he is. I respect that." The voice was thin and a bit gravelly, the source a rather short, electric blue and green deer stepping around from behind the daring explorer's voluminous parka as they looked him over. The deer wore a pair of wrinkled leatherine sleeves over their forelegs and tapped one hoof on the floor quietly but restlessly, seeming to be keeping a mental tally as their eyes darted around the group. "This the community group, yeah? I'm in the right place? Tipple Flux, Mx Flux if you're nasty." Tipple motioned with their snout in the direction of Scarlet's outfit, narrowing their eyes but unable to place the uniform. "That's quite the getup you've got there yourself, yeah? Anypony know how many we're expecting?"

Spoiler

Sorry for the text color being close to yours, Caldwin. I hope it's distinct enough. My other colors from their art are blue and orange and the non-Alistair blues don't read well.

 

[Shadewing]

"Byyyy my accounnnt, Therrre shoullld beeee, one mooore commmming." Alistair bleats, as they look down to a tablet on the table in front of them and taps a few things seemingly double checking.

 

[Caldwin]

"This one's prepared, he is. I respect that."

"True enough," Hazy conceded, "Tipple, you say? Name's Hazy Signal. Please, call me Hazy."

Hazy did a double take at the explorer. "You look familiar, stranger. What's your name?"

 

[CoffeeHorse]

"I'm Night Cap. Explorer, cosmologist, and experimental paleoarcheoastronomer. I guess you've heard of me."

 

[Caldwin]

"Night Cap?" Hazy exclaimed, clearly surprised by the name. "Both me and Scarlets Grandfathers worked with someone named Night Cap." Hazy took out her phone, flipped through several pictures and held the phone up next to Night Cap. "Wow! You could be twins. Grandfather, maybe? Used to work in Caballuston?"

 

[CoffeeHorse]

The explorer stares into the the picture, like staring into an enchanted mirror.

"Oh wow, he's handsome. Caballuston doesn't ring a bell, but I don't know. My family never talked much about family for some reason."

 

[Danaume]

Kai glances over at the arriving... arctic explorer, then blinks and turns his attention back to Scarlet and Haze, "Uh... right. Likewise. A pleasure to meet you both." then he gives a nod to the newly introduced Tripple and Night. He then looks to their host and asks, "Hey, uh... while we are waiting, could we get some drinks or something?"

 

[Shadewing]

"Yeeesss, of cccourse. Feeeel freeee to orrrder anythiiing you wiiish. My bossss has already paaaiiid in advaaance." Alistair replies as they look to Kai.

 

[Copper Bezel]

Tipple raised an eyebrow at Hazy's reference to her apparent family connection to Scarlet and seemed about to ask a question, but their ears shot up at Alistair's words to Kai. With a quick glance around the group, Tipple took a couple of slow steps backward, trying not to call too much attention to themselves, then seemed to simply materialize back at the counter putting in an order.

 

[Caldwin]

Which would have been a sneaky move if Hazey didn't have the same idea of ordering something. She sat down right next to Tipple. "Flim Flam chimicherriechanga and some black coffee please!" She looked over at Tipple and gave a smile.

 

[Danaume]

"Uh, cider please." Kai says, trying to pay attention to everyone as they move about, and looking a bit confused at Tripple's apparent... glitching.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

"They have coffee?"

Night Cap also walks over to the counter and sits... and very slowly sinks in place as the thick snowsuit compresses.

Obviously he is expressionless the whole way down.

"Vantablack coffee please."

 

[Copper Bezel]

"I'd like the Indomitable Anytime Breakfast, an extra Double-Dee Shortstack, another side of soybacon hold the soy, and a coffee," Tipple said, holding their hooves up as if counting something out on their two digits each. They nodded to Hazy after a moment of surprise, but not disappointment, they had been followed. "They said it was bought n' paid for, right? Would be a dirty shame to put all their generosity to waste."

Spoiler

Since it was ambiguous in my post but Kai noticed, Caldwin, I'm going to say that Tipple made use of their Shimmer Drive cloak while ducking into the crowd. It's a temporary optical camouflage, and if you had eyes on them the whole time, you would have seen Tipple's image ripple away into near invisibility for the duration of their cut-and-run-without-the-cut to the counter.

So that's also one of my four charges for the day on the Enhanced Shimmer Drive, 3/4

 

[Caldwin]

Hazy nodded in agreement. "Makes me sorry I ate before I came." Hazy was quite for a brief moment before something went ping in the back of her head and she turned to Tipple with a confused look. "Soybacon hold the soy? Wha...what's left after that?"

 

[Copper Bezel]

"I'm game to find out," Tipple said with a smirk. "You and the Captain friends?" they said, nodding to Scarlet and his naval-looking cap.

 

[Caldwin]

Hazey looked over to consider Scarlet. "Friends?" She asked with a shrug. "You know how you may not biologically be brother/sister, but your families have known each other so long that you might as well be? That's us."

 

[TerraSqueek]

The girl who walked in was… wrong. In many ways.

She didn’t look like she should be in any sort of establishment. The blue pelt and dark mane spattered with ages old dust and debris. Her body in need of a clean, especially the copious amounts of cybernetics. Those were wrong, too. The chassis covering most of her torso and the too-big chrome lined wings had the look of something built in a shed, or worse ripped from someone else after a fight and cobbled back into somewhat working order. The wings especially twitched and fidgeted when she moved. Looking for all the world like she was possessed… or at the very least needed a real cyber doc to look at her.

The only bit of chrome which didn’t seem damaged or hodgepodge was the patch of fiber-optic hair lining her otherwise dark mane. A simple streak falling before her eye that shimmered and moved in the kind of patterns one might see on old gaming devices. But it didn’t seem damaged. Indeed the one eye it covered gave her an almost cute, gothy-yet-punk look to her not unlike many kids stuck on the streets these days.

Those eyes, though. The one visible eye was big and glassy. It was wrong. Her iris sat like a hunk of bloodstone. Shining in the light of the establishment. Too polished and too wide. Like the chrome, it would give anyone sane the fear that she was hovering on the edge of a neural crash due to poorly installed cybernetics. Yet she seemed to be more than ambulatory, if hyper and jittery.

Yes, all of that was wrong. But the real wrong thing. The thing that was most off, was the girl herself.

This wasn’t Neon Shine. Anyone with street cred would know that. Neon was a respected enough chop doc in the back allyways that someone could probably pick her out of a lineup without actually meeting her. She was purple, she was refined, she was professional… she was also in her mid twenties. This girl walking in was not.

Yet she came in all the same, plopped herself down and folded her wings back. The chrome tipped appendages showing off their lace-black powder coat. Dotted and adorned with an array of gothy stickers. Most prominently several variations of a cute, simple, stylized bunny head popular in those who shopped at the mall’s various goth friendly stores. The odd juxtaposition clashing painfully with everything else.

 

[Caldwin]

Not wanting to be rude, Hazy tried not to stare as the misshapen cyborg in front of her. She did hope whatever hack ripperdoc that did that to this poor soul got what was coming to him.

Trying not to be rude, she went with her standby introduction. "Hey! I'm Hazy, local netrunner. What's your story?"