psychoshenanigans | GRATIA // PSL

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GRATIA // PSL

The first thing he feels is the cold.

It permeates everything down here on the lower levels. What little warmth humans have made for themselves is greedily gobbled up by the stone walls that surround them on all sides. Despite the stirring of people in the streets, in their homes, and around corners, this place feels like a grave. A similar sense seems to loom over the heads of most who make their way through this deep, dark part of the world, hovering around them like a cloud of inevitability. No one has been outright sentenced to death, but they may as well be.

Upon waking, Tek will have found himself in a dark, wet alleyway. Attempts to orient himself reveal that he has been brought, somehow, to an impressively large network of tunnels that all lead, more or less, to three or four larger chambers. There is far more vibrant life above him somewhere, far, far above the layer of caves he's in now, and there is also a very deep, sluggish form of life somewhere far below his feet.

No one is coming to get him. No one follows him in his immediate vicinity--the few stragglers hanging around doorsteps and windows don't give him a second glance, or even a first one. The place is crowded, but not busy. Everyone keeps their heads down. The people are all dressed poorly, in rags and robes and bundles that suggest a certain level of consistent poverty all throughout the level. The buildings in these tunnels look man-made, either built from scrap or carved straight out of the rock of the cave, but the majority of the actual roads and cave walls seem to have been formed with very little help from human hands.

The place is lit with lanterns and dirty-looking florescents suspended high above in the cave ceiling. The air is thick and stuffy, the smell of mold and mud prevalent over even the smell of human stagnation. It would not be hard to drag someone off, and he gets the immediate feeling that if he did, it's unlikely that anyone would come looking for them.

What does he do?

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Well... [he chuckles again, bringing his good hand up to his face, pressing his palm against his mouth and partly covering his eye. for one ghastly moment, it's very easy to imagine that all he has is that blank, featureless expression. lips like a cloth doll. one stained, staring eye that looks Tek up and down in kind.

Tonic has a lot more to lose from this than Tek does, he's fairly certain. but...]

All right. I think this will be fun. [he moves his hand, and the smile is back.] Would you like to play here, or would you rather go somewhere else?

[the restlessness from earlier has finally begun to return, now that a little bit of annoyance has unsettled him out of the perfect comfort he'd been basking in. gears are continuing to shift anyway, and he's getting excited. Tonic's awful face is helping. Robin had wanted him to go find something to sink his teeth into, and this is looking more and more like exactly that.]

There were places here for just such a thing, weren't there? I'd love to get up and stretch my legs.

[he wants to go somewhere that looks more like trouble than a nice meal.]

Oh, of course. And I'll need a bit of room...

[illustrated, again, by his standing stiffly up from the table. he also pitches forward, just an little bit more than he'd meant to, and catches himself with his stiff arm against the table. to anyone else, it'd just look like the poor balance of someone whose limbs don't all work very well.. but Tonic says nothing about it one way or another, continuing on to scoot away from the table like nothing happened.

he reaches back to get that last sample glass, though. he can't stand the idea of wasting it.]

The dens will have settled down by now, I'm sure we can find a quiet spot in one of those...

Lead the way. [though, with that telltale wobble...] Or direct me where to go and I'll find us a spot.

[and it's only now, as he's standing and stretching and getting ready to dive back into the crowd below, that he remembers all of the ladders and obstacles he'd been so kind as to climb up to find them this seat in the first place. he's wondering now if maybe he should have set them up in an easier place to climb down from...]

I'll be fine, thank you.

[he waves his hand a little to dismiss the thought--and he seems pretty stable when he does finally take some steps forward, draining that last glass as he does. by the time they reach their first ladder, he sets the empty cup on some other person's table and descends with the kind of practiced grace that makes one think he could have probably managed the ladder even if he had two stiff legs and was completely shitfaced.

he takes the lead again, not bothering with conversation this time, as they both know exactly where they are going and that anything less than their game would be trivial and boring by comparison. he takes them back out of their tunnel, into the main cave, and has them skirting around the edge of the room again, back towards the glittering pond from earlier.

a few of the faces have changed by the time they get there, but not all of them. Tonic walks them past the quiet groups and cuts across the water--stepping along a stone bridge that lies hidden about a quarter-inch underneath the surface. at the end of it is a four-foot opening that is also hard to see with all of the ripples of light being cast this way and that. Tonic ducks under, assuming that Tek is going to be following him.

the inside is about what you would expect--another large, naturally formed tunnel. lights are strung along the ceiling, but they mostly serve as a guide, pointing out paths to other side-chambers and smaller caves that branch off of this main area. most of the interior lighting comes from candles, which are placed everywhere. the people here are mostly sitting alone or laying around with someone else, though there are a couple of smaller groups gathered up around stalagmites here and there. no one really gives their arrival much attention--and Tek can tell why pretty quickly. most of these people are lost in their own clouds, happy to just sit and watch light refracting off of the several small pools that dot the ground.

it's a little stuffy back here, filled with the smell of burning candles and a the slight, acrid tang of some elicit substance, but it's not nearly as bad as one would expect in a closed tunnel. there must be ventilation, somewhere. Tonic gestures widely for Tek to have his pick of the spots when they arrive--because there are chairs, pillows, rugs, corner spots, open spots, hidden spots, plenty of places to choose from, and he wants to know just how secretive Tek wants this game of theirs to be.]

[Tek at least seems quite at ease in this new space, even if he doesn't exactly fit in with it--too sharp, too busy-minded--so he doesn't hesitate to lead the way once prompted to.

he knows exactly the sort of spot he would like to find, if he can, and it only partially has to do with seclusion. goodness knows that he doesn't mind a few sets of prying eyes, but he would like his companion to feel as relaxed as possible, so at least a moderate amount of privacy would be nice. what he's really interested in, however, is comfort.

somewhere around here, there must be a nest. he wants pillows and softness collected together in a space that doesn't naturally encourage separate bubbles of personal space. really, he's looking for the exact opposite of sitting on either side of a stone table as they had been before.]

[easy enough to find, all he really has to do is look up.

there are more of those grooves dug into the walls at varying heights, some of which need rope ladders to reach. most of them seem very round, and closer inspection of one at eye-level reveals that the reason for this is that they are essentially bowls carved into the walls and filled with blankets and pillows. they're big enough for two or three people to stretch out comfortably, and the height makes it easy to believe that people crawl into these to roll around with each other all the time, just out of sight of casual eyes.

the only downside is that their height and sloped nature make them a little hard to get in and out of, so most people with a buzz never bother to get that far. it's also not great for the casual user who doesn't want to waste his high on the inevitable nap that this bed would present.

but one of these would be perfect for Tek and Tonic. the man makes an interested sound as Tek seems to hone in on one of these spaces, so he doesn't seem opposed to the idea.]

[whether he catches Tonic's apparent approval or not, he seems entirely pleased with himself when he finds what he's looking for. the sight of a good nest always puts him in a good mood.

he'll take the lead to climb up and have a closer look once he spots one that he's sure he'll like. it doesn't have many other lofts at the perfect angles to peer in on them from, and the ones that could potentially pose a problem are a considerable distance off the ground, and are currently empty. if someone wants to camp out where they can spy in on their game, they'll have plenty of warning first.

so, up he goes, and once he reaches his destination, he busies himself with arranging the pillows and blankets a little bit. he'll offer Tonic a hand only if he needs it--otherwise, he works on making the space feel ready to have new occupants in it and less like it might have been used and recently vacated by someone else.]

[Tonic does not seem to need a hand up, nor does he ask for one... he climbs just high enough to get his shoulders over, stopping for a moment to cross his arms and lean forward over the edge of the bowl. he watches Tek busying around with the pillows, smiling quietly. his lower half is doing a good job of keeping him propped securely against a rung of the ladder.]

It's been a while since I've been in one of these.

[this may not mean anything; it sounds like an absent little thought he just had.]

If you would rather go somewhere else, speak up now.

[he smooths out the center-most blanket as a finishing touch, and stops to admire his work. obvious sinkholes have been filled with smaller, tougher cushions, and the edges of the nest have been fortified with a balanced arrangement of freshly-fluffed pillows. and with the center area now nice and even (instead of rumpled and abandoned by the previous occupants, the space is ready for them.]

I would spend my whole day in something like this, if I could get away with it.

Sounds like a good life to me, darling.

[he must not have any concerns, since he hoists himself up the rest of the way, slithering into the nest to find a spot to settle in. he ends up sitting with his back up against some of the pillows fortifying the edge, his good leg stretched out in front of him, and his bad leg tucked up, knee close to his chest. it gives his hands somewhere to go, holding that leg securely close to him, fingers woven together to catch his shin.

this is nice. he seems to relax pretty quickly, going so far as to close his eyes for a moment.]

[Tek finds a nice spot to settle just as quickly, angled with a good view of both the doorway and his companion, elbow propped comfortably on the biggest cushion he's leaning against.

he enjoys being this close whenever he can get away with it. everything is easier to read, like this. he can really get a sense of who he's working with here, without distance and distractions between them.

he takes a big breath and indulges in a sigh of contentment.]

...Maybe he won't find me in here, and someone else will have to take him home.

[Tonic suddenly laughs, ruining his own tranquility... but he tips his head back and glances over at his new friend, looking pleased by the situation all the same.]

It'd serve him right. That guy's a mess. You deserve better, babe.

You don't know that.

[he looks sly about it, of course, because... oh, if Tonic only knew.

which brings up the fact that he could know some of it if he tried hard enough, and they did come up here for that exact reason. so, Tek rolls right into officially introducing the game... though, he doesn't budge from his lazy place against the pillows, which ruins any formality it might have had.]

So... on your turn, you can ask any question you would like, or you can request to be told something. You may even ask to be told something about a certain topic, if you'd like to narrow the field.

[he waves his hand to gesture aimlessly between the two of them.]

Then, you guess whether the answer you receive is a truth or a lie. Whoever loses that contest, loses an article of clothing. [a little smirk, then.] ...And if someone is doing spectacularly poorly, or we'd like to drag out the game for whatever other reason we want, we can always change it to every two or three wrong answers as we go.

[what do you say, friend?]

[the staring returns. it sneaks in so quietly that it's hard to realize that Tonic is staring at all, but being corrected gets him invested, gets his attention fully on the matter at hand. whatever level of intoxication he may be under, he doesn't want to miss a second of this.]

All right. Sounds good to me.

[he glances away just long enough to stretch one of his arms, really committing to getting comfortable and finding a place where he can watch Tek and keep an eye on the door at the same time.]

Since you're the rule-master here, how about you ask the first question?

Fair enough.

[while he leans on his hand, gazing up at the ceiling and mulling over possible questions, he also lets his other senses drift out. he can't tell many useful things from this distance (a reading of poisons in the system, for example, really requires a touch to bring it into focus) he can still hone in on an aura. he assumes the man is human, so no surprises there, but maybe there is something else interesting hiding in or on his person. he doesn't know.]

I'll start simple. How did you get into your line of work?

[there is nothing magical hiding on his person. his aura, however, has a faint trace of... something. it is barely a wisp of smoke compared to the bonfire that emanates out of Robin or most of the people they had known from their world-hopping adventures... but compared to the true, average human around here, Tonic is definitely different.

it's hard to say how, exactly, but Robin would have told him enough between this world and previous adventures for Tek to warrant a guess that Tonic might be one of those "mages" this world is so quick to permanently silence.

Tonic doesn't have to think for very long before an easy smirk spreads over half his face again.]

I fell into it.

[Tek smiles to himself--half due to Tonic's answer and half because of the way that his aura stands out from the rest, even by that little bit. it makes the time that he's spending with him just that much more worth it. now, he has something he can point to as an excuse for all the attention he's giving him.]

I suppose it's safe to guess that one as a truth... though, I'm now left even more curious as to the details in either case.

Ah, you got me.

[but he doesn't seem bothered. he sits up and starts peeling his jacket away, shrugging out of of his sleeves. doing so does not reveal much of anything, because he's wearing a separate set of sleeves underneath his jacket. they tie across his chest and back, over some third piece that forms the majority of his shirt.

he drops his jacket nicely near his feet before settling back again.]

You can always ask me more questions about it, if you really want to know.

[sounding playful about it, he's ready with his question.]

Okay, what is your line of work?

[ah, right. the question that prompted him to remember this game in the first place. the moment when he switches from contemplating his next turn--deciding whether he's going to go after further information about his first question or ask one of the many others he has lined up in his head--to dwelling on the question asked to him is quite clear. whether he's going to tell the truth or lie with his answer, the frown is honest.]

Ah... my family takes their business very seriously, and my siblings and I were all drafted into it by the misfortune of our birth.

[he sighs. the whole thing is such a tragedy.]

Notary scribe, I'm sorry to say. Terribly boring business.

Oh dear...

[he finds this story amusing, whether or not it is true. it's Tonic's turn to glance out the door, thinking of what little he knows about Tek--but not actually taking that long to decide.]

I think you're lying.

[said with a cheery half-smile. notary scribes don't long for the Underground world, let alone the world of Skeleton City.]

[of course he doesn't act like one, when he has been forced into it the way he has. Tek looks offended by that accusation.]

How dare you... questioning that I would go along with my family's noble business, however much I loathe it...

[but he's sitting forward so that he can unbutton and shrug out of his own jacket as he carries on, tossing it beside Tonic's when he's done.]

[that gets Tonic to laugh again. it's a charming subversion of expectation, on top of a little thrill that his instincts turned out right.]

Noble indeed...

[now freed from his jacket, he settles back against the pillows once more, and throws his next question out casually, as soon as he gets comfortable.]

Aside from his stunning personality, why do you hate Robin?

Oh... Hm...

[this may end up being the state of things, back and forth, as the two of them are asked and have to answer questions: Tonic's smile slips from his face as he has to think his way around something unpleasant, trying to decide if it would be safer to tell the truth, or to make up a lie.

he looks right at Tek when he states his final answer.]

He ruined a very important opportunity for me.

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