Years of working in the nameless tavern had instilled certain reflexes within young barmaid. Diving behind the bar at the first hint of catastrophic damage or explosions was one of them. So as soon as glass and flames started showering into the tavern, she found herself on the floor without thought.

Slowly as the sounds of commotion settled, she raised her head to peer over the counter. Wide eyes took in the sudden change of scenery and fell upon the still figure.

Without moving the called out. "Hey, you. Are you ok?"
She made no move to check on the newcomer, seeming quite content to stay sheltered behind the bar. Her mannerism and tone a vast contrast to the fine clothing she wore, telling of a lower class upbringing.

@BunniesOfDoom

((I was going to let people join in if they wanted to but I guess no one else will be joining. Oh well. Let's play!))

Julian Kar laid on his back, his eyes held closed tightly as he tried to gather his senses. His head a spinning like he was on a runaway carousel. He knew he had come to finally settle om the ground but the room just wouldn't sit still. It had been a good few years since he last hot his ass handed to him in such a way. He had definitely lost that fight and the female's affections. She was no bounty following the other male off to his roost.

When the barmaid called from behind the bar, did Julian finally open his fiery eyes of bright red and dancing oranges. He slowly held up his right hand, giving a weak thumbs up in response. "Yep, fine." He slowly started to push himself up into a seated position, a low groan escaping him as he did so, "just-" he looked around the tavern, "peachy," he muttered quietly as he looked from one person to another, noticing that none of them had any kind of feathers or that their clothes weren't silky and baggy.

"Uh," he said as he started to stand and held his hands up in a show of peace, "where am I?"

After what seemed like forever...
Seeing that all was settled and hearing the newcomer was ok, the young wide-eyed barmaid stood up and dusted herself down.
"You are in a tavern that has no name." She reply flatly as she look about.
"I am glad you're ok." She added, collecting an old broom from nearby and then casually making her way over to the man, standing it before him.
"If your limbs are all working, you can clean up this mess."
Her words were firm and certain, her lips presenting a soft smile, and a mild curiosity shone in her eyes.

@BunniesOfDoom

Julian took the broom that was presented to him, peering around him curiously. "The tavern that has no name huh?" He quickly set the broom to the side and strolled to the nearest table with food and took a deep whiff of the aroma. It seemed all too familiar. He reached down and plucked a piece of meat out of the bowl before giving it a sniff, much to the yells of the patron who owned that particular bowl of stew.

He straightened as he popped the piece of meat into his mouth. "Many thanks," he told the grumbling woman before he turned back to the barkeep, chewing idly as he did so. "A little chewy," he commented before he swallowed and started picking at his teeth with a long claw.

"So," he said as he took a seat at the bar, all but forget about the broom and mess she had just told him to clean up. "Where in the great world is this tavern with no name because none of you," he gestured with a hand to incorporate all who were in the tavern, "have a single feather. Not a one. What's it like not being able to fly?"

@BunniesOfDoom

The soft playful smile slowly faded as lips pressed firmly together in frustration. She tracked their movements around the tavern with an increasingly incredulous glare, one that caused a furrow to her brows.

Gripping the broom tightly in a fist she turns away and slaps it down on the floorboards as she begins sweeping together the scattered debris.

"Oh, I imagine being unable to navigate in the air is much the same as being unable to navigate upon the winds of social etiquettes."
She snaps back, doing little to hide her feelings.

He watched her idly, an elbow rested on the bar and his head resting in the palm of his head. When she snapped back at him about not being able to follow the basic rules of social interaction, he allowed a snark smile to cross his features. He thought a moment, watching her grumble over the mess he made before he stood up from the bar stool with a clap of his hands.

"What are you doing?" He asked incredulously, planting his hands on his hips and gazing at her like a mother catching a child doing something they shouldn't be. "That's my mess." He reached out and snatched the broom from her hands quickly as he tsked her. "Young ones," he muttered as he ushered her to the bar and tried to shove her down into a seat. "Let me show you how it's done."

He allowed a large smart grin to form on his face as he snapped his fingers but the air in the bar shifted just slightly. His grin faded ever so slightly as he snapped again, the air only moving a hint once more. He let out a nervous chuckle. "There comes a time in a man's life where he might find it hard to perform. It's perfectly normal." He began to snap ferociously, the air moving little by little until a gust finally picked up in the tavern.

"There we are!" He said with a broad smile as he looked once more at the barmaid. "See, works just fine." The winds swirled around his hand before he sent it out to with a gesture. It whirled around the floor, gathering up the debris and trash in a heap. He spun his finger about in a circle and the debris began to cyclone about on the floor before rising up and off the ground. He pointed to the nearest trashcan and it diligently flew towards it before dramatically dropping down on top of and around it. A large chunk of the mess ended up in the trash but there were still pieces that had missed and now laid scattered around the rim of the trash can.

"Why work hard when you have magic?" He reached down and picked up the large, heavy tabletop with a single hand before he turned to the barkeep, pointing to it with his other hand. "Can I keep this?"

The barmaid has taken to leaning on the bar and watching. Her face still held a hint of that earlier frustration but it was now blended with a curiosity. Although, as she watched the display with complete nonchalance, it seemed her inquisitive mind was pondering something more than this magical newcomer.

Her gaze slowly looked to the places of wreckage and then back to the broken table. A faint smug curl forming in the corner of her lips.

"I'm afraid not. And that's not up to me anyway."

With a faint nod she gesture to the firm piece of wood in his hand as it started to reform back into its original shape. The damage undoing itself with every blink or wayward glance. The entrance hole he had made and much of the debris was already now gone, the damage attempting to slip from thought as easily as it did reality.

"Why even do magic when you have a nameless tavern?" She playfully tease.

Julian looked down at the piece of table in his hands when she gestured to it. He let out a cry of surprise and released it as its legs grew out from the bottom of it, quickly taking the form of a table once more. It clattered to the ground, a complete table once again and he leaned over him, examining it diligently. "Curiouser and curiouser," He muttered as he prodded the table with a claw. He looked over to the broken window he had used as an entrance and watched as it repaired itself.

He 'huh'ed at the sight before he stepped once more over the bar and took a seat. "Interesting," he said as he pondered on his new interesting information. His fiery eyes eventually locked onto her, a frown forming on his face. "So does it fix anything that's been done? What if you decided to redecorate? Would it undo everything you did? And if you learned that the hard way, how much did you get painted before you found it all back to the wooden walls again?" His mouth quirked up in a broad grin once more.

With a soft sigh she replies. "That all depends." After a moment of silence she decides to elaborate.
"Depends on who is painting or redecorating and well, if it likes it or not."
Her eyes wander around the room, over the current furniture and the odd decoration here and there.

"I know I've put some of those up myself but I'm not sure if it was by my will to do so or the taverns. I also can't be sure if that is what it looked like when I did it or if it has changed since then along with my memories."

She shrugs the thought away dismissing it and turning her gaze back to Julian, narrowing her eyes slightly taking him in.
"What I do want to know is why did it pick you up, where are you from?"

Julian listened intently to the woman as she explained the tavern and he hummed quietly to himself, stroking his chin in thought. So the tavern was a living thing, essentially. Did some all powerful deity leave it here so it can explore the realms or was the tavern itself a deity? He strolled idly back and forth as he pondered the new questions that came to his mind, that was until she asked where he was from. He paused then, peering back at her from over his shoulder. "Hmm," he questioned before he turned to face her completely. "Me?" He gave a small laugh before he walked over to the bar, purposely toppling over a table along the way just to see how long it would take for the tavern to make it right again. The patron sitting at said table only eyed him fiercely. He smiled courtly at them. "For science," he whispered with a small pat on the person's shoulder as he went by. He didn't get a chance to see how long it would take for the table to right itself because the patron leaned down and picked the table up once more. He frowned at that but let it be.

He came to settle just before the bar, eyeing it like he was looking at a new species he had never seen before. "Some people," he said curtly, "not naming any names," he shot a fierce glance back at the patron who had ruined his experiment, "just don't understand science." He then drove his claw deep into the bar top, listening intently as if he expected to hear some kind of creature cry out. When nothing of the sort happened, he gave the claw a wiggle in the wood then waited to see if there would be any kind of reaction. When, again, nothing happened. He ripped his claw along the bar top, leaving a long deep gash along the wood. He pulled the claw to his face to examine it but it was none different than when he plunged it into the wood in the first place. He flicked with that finger a few times as he 'hmm' to himself before he took a seat at the bar, eyeing his handiwork.

"I came from a magical realm call Molkof. There are a lot of people like me there," he spoke idly as if he wasn't giving it his full attention, leaning close to the long gash and eyeing it every which way. "I'm, what some might call, a phoenix. A firebird, houou, ect ect." he waved a hand in the air as he spoke the ect parts. "It's not uncommon for people of my realm to go realm hopping. We do it all the time. I just never thought I would end up in a place like this after a fight for dominance." He sat up quickly, pointing to the gash in the wood as it began to slowly seal up. "There! It's closing." He leaned forward to watch as closely as he could. "Fascinating."

"Like you?" She question rhetorically, watching him deliberately damage the counter with displeasure. Despite knowing it would be fine, it still made her anxious and she fought to not interject.
"I hope only in appearance and not personality." She mumble under her breath, turning away.

"Can I interest you in a drink? What do the folk of Molkof drink? Perhaps some food? There's currently no chef so it will have to be something simple." The barmaid question as she headed over to a shelf of mugs.

Julian looked up at the woman from under his lashed, a broad grin crossing his features when she mumbled under her breath that she hoped they were only like him in appearance and not personality. "Of course not," he said with a chuckle, "There's only one of me out there and I'm it." He chuckled lightly, still keeping his face close to the gash as he watched it seal up. "No, no. There are only a few phoenixes in my realm but it's just full of realm hoppers. Some of them call it planeswalking but honestly, I never felt that was descriptive enough to explain the place. We're going to different worlds. It's not just another little grassland we're heading to. Plane just doesn't seem to cover it. So I, personally, call it realm hopping." When the gash sealed up completely, he sat up and settled more comfortably in the chair. "So very fascinating. I wonder if I know this deity that brought this place into being." He looked around the room as if looking for any kind of sign or something familiar that he could recognize the handiwork of.

When she offered him a drink, he frowned lightly before shaking his head. "No, no. I don't drink. Not since the last time I got so drunk I found myself in a completely different realm with tiny little men trying to burn me at the stake. I'm not sure what happened then, it's still all a little fuzzy. It took hours to explain to the people that you can't burn a phoenix. No matter how many times they tried and how many logs they added to that damn inferno, they just wouldn't get the hint. It wasn't until all my nice clothes were ash and they had run out of logs to burn did they finally just let me go." He shook his head as he leaned against the bar. "Some people, you just can't talk to, ya know? When they want to burn you at the stake, they want to burn you at the stake. Sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy the show. And those pants, they were the finest silk! Burned to ash, just like that." He sighed as if he had faced the struggle far too many times to count and he was growing tired of it. Though he did perk right up at the mention of food. "Now, food. I could definitely go for some food. What have you got? Anything fresh?"

As he spoke she stared at him with a quizzical expression, her lips parted as if she was about to ask something but then she pulled back, releasing the thought with a little exhale.

Wording her reply carefully as to not invite the trouble of his experimentive nature, she thoughtfully replies.
"We have a wide range of foods, let me know what you like and I'll see what we have."

She had worded her sentence so carefully. Julian let an eyebrow raise before he felt his lip twerk up just a hint in the corner. He waved it off though as he looked her up and down. "Human, right? I don't want to assume. You could be something other than human but your scent and appearance tells me that you're likely a human. I would feel very ashamed if I was incorrect and you turned out to be a short eared elf or the like, but," he eyed her again before giving a nod, "yeah, I'm going to go with human. So, perhaps you have beef back there?" He said, his eyes peering past her and into the kitchen area behind the bar.

One of the many things he took pleasure in was the sampling of food from different realms. He found beef to be a good one along with kadric, a long angel fish that flew through the skies of Adrion. That fish was downright heavenly when cooked properly. Get the meat flakey with just a hint of spices and you could die just to taste it again. Just the thought of the fish had his mouth watering.

"What happened to your chef? Did he run off with a waitress?" He idly dug his initials into the bar top, watching as his marks sealed back up over and over again. He peered up at the barkeep before he frowned fiercely. "I just realized. I don't know your name." He straightened before he extended his hand out to her for a friendly shake. "My name is Julian Kar, phoenix extraordinaire, at your service. And you would be?"

She frown as he scratch the bar again. "If I were to slice you, I'm sure you would heal too, eventually. Doesn't give me right to though." She says defensively, looking at the marks with annoyance.

"And You are right, you don't know my name." She said with a huff and a teasing smirk as she spun on the spot leaving his hand out hanging as she casually stroll towards a nearby open doorway, presumably the kitchen.
"Alright, one dry old beef coming up." She spoke in fluent sarcasm, her voice echoing from the room behind."

Then, a new guest walked in. 3 guests, to be exact.
"HOW DID WE DO THAT?"
"I DO NOT KNOW, ROOKIE!"
as they settle down, they introduce themselves."
"Hello, we are,"
"Rookie,"
"Rufus,"
"and Rummage. this is really getting annoying, dontcha think?"
"No, it's fine."
"i'm tired of saying that, especially after we almost DIED!?"
"WE'VE BEEN DOING THIS SINCE WE WERE TODDLERS! WE CAN DO IT MORE!"
"SHUT UP!"
as the two raccoons started to fight, the other booked the room.
this is life for the raccoons.

"You know, normally I wouldn't find interest in a mortal human but damn girl," he called back at her with a laugh. What can he say? He found strong personalities appealing. He leaned back casually in the chair, peering around at the items along the walls. That was when the trio of raccoons came into the tavern, bickering with each other. Julian allowed an eyebrow to raise before he casually slid out of his chair and began a leisurely stroll towards the three. He tucked his hands behind his back, humming happily to himself as he approached them.

"Boys, boys," he reached out and grabbed the two fighting raccoons by the scruff of their necks and lifted them off the ground. He looked from one to the other and gave a small laugh. "There is no need for anyone to go fighting here. You need to have respect for this place or else our wonderful," he peered over his shoulder to where the barkeep went into the back are of the bar before yelling, "NAMELESS, barkeep will get upset." He set one raccoon in one chair and the other raccoon in a separate chair across the table from the other.

"Now, what's going on? Why are we fighting here?" He sat down on the last chair at the table, flaring his wings out so the back of the chair didn't bother him. He crossed his arms, looking from one raccoon to the other.

"Well,"
"He undermines my personal hobbies!"
"YOU STARE AT DIFFERENT UNIVERSES THROUGH AN ORB! AND YOU'RE...doing it right now, what a suprise."
"It's a long history, mister, but essentially my baby bro ("HEY! IM NOT A KID!") got a magic orb from a strange van, and later found us in a different universe. He could communicate to us, and he did, but it only worked once so he got me to get him to our older bro (*blows a raspberry kiss*) and we've been going to different universes trying to do stuff, and also turns out we are NOT meant to be together, and the universe is after us. Also, they just don't like each other, and fight a lot. Anyways, I'll get started with, umm, do you guys have a zsropgaslop? Water is fine, if not."
This is life for the raccoons.

Julien listened intetly to them, a look of legitimate concern on his features as he looks from one raccoon to the other. He nodded slowly, as the raccoons explained but then sat up right at the mention of an orb. "Magic orb you say?" He looked to the raccoon named Rookie, leaning forward just a hint. "Any chance I can get a look at this magic orb?" If what the little critters were saying were true, then either some deity has a missing relic that they need to take accountability for or they purposely released it into the world to see the chaos it would ensue, much like Discordia's golden apple.

He sat back in his chair, gazing up at the ceiling of the tavern as multiple thoughts went through his head. A magic orb that allowed non-realm hoppers to hop realms and discover each other. Why were they not meant to be together? There were just so many different thoughts with no answers to his questions as he pondered. This was turning out to be quite the day, it seemed. Quite the day indeed.

It wasn't too long before the barmaid returned with an appetising looking tray of glistening warm beef and a melody of fresh winter vegetables and herbs of the perfect blend to compliment the meat.

She stroll to the table and before placing the food down she pause to take in the raccoons.
"Julian, you have some friends?" She ask, deliberately adding a teasing disbelief into her tone. She place the food down, but not directly in front of the Phoenix.

"Greetings." She said as she looked over the three new comers.
"My name is Amelia..." She smiled and eyes Julian from the corner of her eye.
"Welcome to the nameless tavern, if there's anything I can get you, please just ask."