[IC] [Open] Self-Discovery Quest!

[RoflsMazoy]

"General Suckfudge." A deep, brooding voice said. A man standing next to him visibly cringed, as if he didn't enjoy being called by that name. "Yes, milord?" "Where are the misfits now?" "They are nearing the town, milord." The general said, "They will reach the outskirts soon." "Are the preparations in place?" "Yes, milord. The men are in place." "Hue hue hue hue..." the voice said, "They will never know what hit them!" Behind him, a soldier whispered to his friend. "Does he know that everyone takes the piss out of his laugh behind his back?" The room was silent for a few seconds. "...He's deaf." His friend said. Dunt dunt, DUUUUUNNNNNTTT

---

On a hill overlooking the city of Polis, a large glittering city built on several thousand years of trade and debauchery, a rather strange group of creatures stood at its top. There was a moving rusty old-fashioned diving suit, a pretty looking male harpy, a white alpaca with a red bow, a land shark nibbling on a guidebook and an unnaturally swollen blobfish. They had journeyed long and far, one to find a meaning, two for something they never had; and two to find death, and embrace it. Little did they know, their true journey started here... "Alright, so..." the land shark known as Luka prised a partially eaten guidebook from his teeth. "Apparently the city is called Polis." He put the book onto the ground and flipped through it with his front paws. "According to this book, Polis is famous for it's accurate Stork records and it's various dating hotlines." He peered more closely at the book. "Apparently Storks come and go pretty often so their records should be pretty extensive. " He flipped over a page. "Let's see... There's apparently a pretty popular normal dating hotline which many people use, and there's also a dry-land marine life dating hotline as well. It's also apparently staffed by some pretty friendly Sirens." He closed the book, satisfied he'd gleaned all he could, and looked back at the group behind him. "Hopefully we can find more about what we're looking for in this city." He said, "What do you guys want to do first?"

[Gandalf]

"Don't you think this sounds too good to be true? That this whole city has everything we need, and we only traveled a couple weeks to get here?" The dead man continued his rant, "From my hundred years of experience, I can tell you that places like this never turn out like they are supposed to be. And if I was wrong I'd finally be dead, but here I am!" He took off his helmet and looked at the city, with his empty eye sockets. "You know what,It's no New York,but I think I'm going to give this a chance"

[Todd Howard]

"... Hmm." Heena simply stared at the city, as she listened to Luka explain what he could about it. Accurate Stork records, huh? It sounded like a dead-end, but there had to be some issues somewhere in their history. It'd be years and years ago, so obviously their reputation could have gotten better since she was born. What were the chances that same Stork was working still, anyways? The odds couldn't possibly be that high. Probably wouldn't even be able to find the bundle of feathers even if she knew who it was. Though she wasn't certain this would work out for her, she was excited that the others might be able to find something here. Peter didn't seem to think so, but was still curious, at least. Curiosity went a long way during ventures like this! At least she thought so. Maybe she was wrong? Or maybe she was absolutely right. Who was to say? The only way to find out was to push forward, and that's exactly what she planned on doing. "New York?" She questioned, looking over at Peter. He was scary looking, and he kind of smelled, but seemed nice enough to Heena. It certainly didn't stop the Alpaca's curious nature from asking, "What's that?"

[Gandalf]

Peter was staring at the tall, spindly towers of Polis, when he was drawn into a conversation with the short llama. Absent mindedly he replied "A playground for rich,and a hell for the poor." As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he quickly tried to end the conversation. "Look, all it was was a city. Nothing more, nothing less." It wasn't that he didn't want to tell her of his past. The time just wasn't right! It would screw up morale, and he planned to do it a few minutes before he finally died.

[TalijaKey]

Humhum hummed a tune in his happiness. Looking at the city in front of them he was more than trilled to try it. What was there too lose anyway? He enjoyed his travel company, they were really nice to him. Well after he was told that the blob fish even if it is a fish isnt provision. But that was in the past in the first days of their travel together. As peter mentioned new york and answered the question about what it was to Heena, he tilted his head. ''Oh? a city? mmm~ I was sure you were just hungry mhm~ and talked about a egg meal. mmm~'' He flapped his wings a few times going off the earth just a few inches. ''As far as I ammm~ concerned I want to go to it. mhm~ mhmmm~ I willl~ just stay away from those Sirens, just in case. Until we are really mmmm ~ sure they are mhm ~ nice~~ ''He sing sang his opinion softly touching the ground and making his hair look prettier by adjusting some lose strains that fly out of their position. He stepped forward playfully, checking if his walk was just the right way to be impressive for the maybe future love of his? Turning around he hummed happily waiting for the rest to come and go to this city. Humhums hopes were high, pretty much like always he just didnt traveled the world long enough not to radiate the hope that any moment it could happen.

[Chapatrap]

Artemis grunted in annoyance. The constant "HMMMMMMMM" from his travelling companion, a scarily happy bird-man-creature, had started getting on his nerves from day one. By now, his nerves were bruised and Humhum was doing Riverdance with Micahel Flatley atop of them. All he wanted was to get to this damn city, get some grub and go to sleep in someones toilet. But what Luka had said about dating hot-lines with Sirens aroused his interest (as well as his crusted loins). Perhaps he could find a payphone somewhere and have an enjoyable afternoon for once. Or at least try to, going by his track record with females. "I think we should find somewhere to rest and then hit the town" he said finally, glancing at the much larger figures he considered companions. "Anything to get out of this goddamned sun. I think my skin might start drying out..." To emphasis his point, he ran a small fin over his flabby forehead and was disgusted to discover his skin was peeling. "Good God" was his only murmured response as a flake of skin drifted to the ground. After several moments of silence, Artemis grew bored of staring at the city in silence. He had seen thousands of unremarkable cities in his life and this one was no exception. Once you've seen one large city, you've seen them all. "God, lets go. I'm not standing around to be cooked in the bloody sun" he said suddenly, giving an angry glance to Luka at the thought. Things were tense between them after an incident several days ago that he'd rather not think about. He gave an almighty heave and flopped forth down the hill, feeling tired already. Giving up after the second flop forward, he rolled onto his side and allowed gravity to take it's course. He rolled down the hill, slowly gaining speed until the entire world was a blur. Not that he noticed, of course. He kept his eyes closed because getting sick is not advisable for ones first post.

[Gandalf]

Peter had figured that the shriveled pink raisin was right about actually going to the city, instead of just looking at it. He hoped that he could maybe find a conch shell of the ceremonial persuasion, and cheap spectral booze so his soul could get drunk. "Yeah, this is a good time to at least try to be productive. Let's get going, it's been too long since I've seen skyscrapers." Peter also secretly hoped he could maybe find out if those sirens at the dating place could direct him to a place of worship, so he could exact some revenge upon those who had cursed him. If not, lighting a normal priest on fire would do.

[RoflsMazoy]

"That looks fun!" Following the blobfish's lead, Luka curled into a spherical finned ball and rolled down the slope with him. However, unlike his shrivelled companion, Luka's body is extremely smooth, and he found himself rolling much faster and much farther than expected. His caused him to do a little jump as he rolled and he sailed through the air, straight into a nearby bush. "Wah!" He said, as he burst out from the undergrowth. "Ooh! Berries!" The bush was covered in the ripe fruits, and they looked extremely tasty. Without hesitation, Luka began to savagely nibble at the berries one by one. "Oh, these are poisonous." He said, recognizing the distinct taste. "Poison doesn't affect me though, so I should probably eat it all before anyone else can!" Luka continued to consume all of the berries, and when he found there were no more, he proceeded to take bite-sized chunks of the bush itself. Soon enough, all that was left of the bush was a wooden stump. Suddenly, a voosh! could be heard, and a glowing light appeared around Luka followed by a sudden ding! before it faded. "Yay!" He exclaimed happily, "I got poison berry nibble!" He looked back towards Polis, their destination, and perhaps where their journey would end. "C'mon guys! Let's go!" He set off at a merry trot towards the city of Polis.

[Chapatrap]

Artemis felt woozy as flopped to the bottom. He was covered in muck, pieces of stray grass and a sentient worm had crawled into the blobfishs ear hole. He tried to ignore the small whispered vows of revenge it made as it slowly crawled out of his ear and hopped back into the grass, digging itself under the dirt seconds later. "Good lord" groaned Artemis, rolling over onto his front again. As his beady eyes glanced around, he saw Luka chewing on a clump of poisonous berries and happily state the fact. The blobfishs mouth opened and closed again in pure exasperation as a light enveloped his Sand Shark companion and dinged! "Yay!" he exclaimed happily, "I got poison berry nibble!" "Well, that's a thing, I suppose..." murmured Artemis, his brow furrowing. "You could of left me a few berries, you know. But oh no, the bottomless pit that is Luka must be filled or else it'll explode into a million pieces...". He continued muttering under his breath as he heaved himself forward and flopped across the grass. The city gate was in sight - but it'd take all day and most of Christmas before the blobfish would make it to Polis just by flopping. "Hey, Luka, be a dear and let me sit on your back" panted Artemis, dragging himself beside his companion. "It'll take years if I go by myself and my old immortal, fishbones hurt."

[Gandalf]

Peter saw a semblance of pity manifest within himself while watching the blobfish pathetically flop towards the city. He picked Artemis up in his tarnished bronze covered hands. "Don't complain if you get tetanus, I'm giving you a free ride out of the pity in my ribcage as I lack a heart. He continued forward, following the suicidal(?) land shark.

[TalijaKey]

Humhum was at few long moments completely fascinated with the rolling blob fish and land shark. Just watching them until they stopped down on the hill. He didnt even consider to follow the same way down. His feathers were too nice for that. Instead he fly up and a bit too high up giving a birds eye view of the city in front of him. The tower looked like a great place to rest. He fly lower and landed closer to the berry bush that had its berry eaten away.'' aww, such a pity they are poisoned Luka mhm~. Please do not explode mmm. '' He said with a hint of worry after hearing Artemis complaining. ''I saw a tavern mhm~ that looked nice just beside the gates mmm inside the city. We could rent mhmmm~ a room there. We arent out of money again, or? hmmmmm?~'' He hummed, tilting his head at Luka, before just walking the gates and entered it. Well nearly. A guard stopped him. ''Say your name and please declare the business you have in this place. Its just protocol.'' One of the two gate guards said eyeing the group. As if debating if they were the most strange group he saw or not in his life. '' Humhum, I want to mmm~ fall in love. mmmhmmmm~'' He announced proudly continuing, as he ruffled his feathers to pose and look impressive, hopefully breath taking too.'' My friends are all mmm~ nice.'' ''Hm... you bunch look like thieves to me.

[Gandalf]

Peter walked up to the guards at the gate. He pulled off his rusty diving helmet and placed it on the ground, after setting down Artemis.His putrid rotting skull was in full view of them."Let me in or I will sate my hunger for the living by eating you two." He let his jaw hang open as he walked closer to the guards."It will be over sooner if you don't squirm."

[Chapatrap]

Artemis flopped in front of Peter hurriedly, attempting to defuse the situation before he got hurt. "What he means is, we're weary travellers looking for a place to stay for the night. Please, we're not thieves. I mean, look at this bunch, how could they possibly steal any...." Artemis glanced around at his companions. A ditzy llama, a starving Sand-Shark, a dead man with his jaw hanging off and a humming man-bird hybrid looked back at him. "Oh God...." he murmured, realising how strange this must of looked. The guard grunted in agreement. "Okay, we can let you into Polis on a few conditions. A, don't scare the children or the baby seals. You make the baby seals cry, you're out. 2, don't steal anything. X27, take a look in the mirror and fix yourself, you disgusting little sausage" said the guard finally, staring down at the blob fish with a look of disgust. "Oh and we'll need a bit of the old coin before we let you in. You know, for our troubles" said the other guard, a smirk forming on his face. "The local authorities take bribes, there's stork records and a siren dating service. What a lovely city Polis sounds like" said Artemis, rolling his beady eyes. He flopped around to face his companions. "Okay, men...and lady-llama thing, we're going to need to pull together a bit of cash to give to these individuals before they'll let us in. Thing is, I left my wallet in my other pants, so if one of you can lend me something, I'm willing to pay it back at a later date" said Artemis, with a large shit-eating grin on his face. Not even in the gates of Polis and he was already looking to break into something.

[Gandalf]

"This is obviously a shakedown, but I'll pay." Peter handed the guard a stack of barnacle encrusted American dollar bills. He hoped these jackasses would take it so that he could get in there and find Brynjolf to give him the old one two for this, also because the thieves guild was full of boring quests. He whispered to the pink ball of meat:"If this fails I will throw you over the wall. Once over the wall, roll over to the back entrance and open it. Then we can ditch the living weight."

[RoflsMazoy]

"General Suckfudge." The deep brooding voice said. "Where are the misfits now?" General Suckfudge heaved a weary sigh. "They are at the gates, milord," He said, "Our men are in position and they are ready." "Excellent! Deploy Igor! As the general rushed off to deliver the message, some sniffling could be heard coming from the figure. "Father! Brother!" He cried, "I will make you proud!" He then burst into golden, glorious tears as the clouds above parted and allowed a ray of light to fall onto the figure as the angels of heaven sang in chorus; the sunlight outlined a man clad in the finest gold, shining gemstones on his rings. Golden locks flowed in the wind, though none blew in the courtroom, as his beautiful face contorted into an expression of bittersweet sadness. Behind him, his men's eyes were heavy with tears. This truly was the man they had chosen to serve, though he could hear them not, though he had consumed himself in the pursuit of vengeance. Truly, he was the crown king of Polis.

---

Meanwhile, as the misfits loitered at the city gates, glinting eyes watched from the shadows. But suddenly, a great roar was heard. The group looked above the gate, at the monstrosity that stood before them. "What is that?!" Luka said. But Luka would find no answer to his question. The guards in front of them ran off in fear as the hulking mass of muscle stood up and spread it's arms as if in welcome, or perhaps in mockery, then leaned forwards and fell, straight towards the group. They could do little but stare as the herald of their doom descended, and they could do little more when the giant landed... An almighty boom! could be heard as the giant's body impacted the ground, and cracks started to spread from where he landed. City guards suddenly materialized from several nearby bushes, and proceeded to peel the giant off of the group, before wheeling a large cage-like box on a wagon to the crater. One by one, our heroes were loaded onto the cage, and the wagon was wheeled off into the city...

---

"W-w-wha-?" In the dark, Luka's eyes weakly fluttered open. "W-where...?" He looked around him to see... a cell? They seemed to be in some kind of incredibly damp prison cell. He yawned weakly, and tried to stand up, but for some reason he was incredibly weak. He looked up to see all his friends were also there, and for some reason Peter the diving suit was slightly dented. He looked at his surroundings to see colonies of mildew on the walls, some kind of slime being excreted from some cracks in the wall, and many sets of manacles on the far end of the room. "What happened to us?"

[Chapatrap]

"We got caught by the Polis welcoming committee and they checked us into the penthouse of the finest hotel in Polis!" snarled Artemis, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Look! This clump of hay is the finest in all the land, these manacles are a unique addition and no hotel room is complete without a bucket to shit in!". The blobfish had been awake for several minutes longer than his Sand-Shark companion and had already figured out what happened. Although, he couldn't remember what exactly had happened. One minute, he was asking to borrow some money from his companions and the next minute, a large creature who looked like it'd overdosed on protein shakes had pulled itself out of nowhere and after that, it was a blur of grunts, cries and roars. And to make it worse, his back had become sunburned and horribly itchy. His flabby, useless flippers couldn't reach around to his back to scratch at the peeling skin, so he had resorted to laying on his back and pushing himself backwards and forwards to merit some relief. He rolled his eyes at Luka and continued grinding his back along the ground, occasionally groaning with relief. While doing so, he looked around the dark cell. His eyes were small and not strong enough to see in the dark properly, so it was all just black, blobby shapes. There was something slimy on the wall beside him, occasionally brushing against the side of his body. He shivered at the feel of it. At least his body was receiving some moisture. His other companions lay around the cell in various states of unconsciousness, while the only sound to be heard was the dripping of water from the cracks in the walls and the occasional cry from far away. Artemis paused slightly when he heard the cry before sighing at the irritable itch on his back and continued rubbing his back across the ground.

[TalijaKey]

When it comes to letting them in Polis he looked around the others. Peter was threatening to be let in while Artemis was calming the situation. Humhum being amused hummed in response. Than the situation about the paying the guards came around, the blobfish started asking for the money. This wasnt amusing. ''I dont have any coins. hmmm?''Said the bird with jewelry around his legs and shiny precious stones knotted in the edges of his hair. Moving his hand to one piece of jewelry his eyes darkened in warning. Those were his and no one was going to ask him to use them for anything. How should he find the love of his life if he wasnt the prettiest around. A silent hummed word came out of the harpy. '' mmmmine.'' Just like that people started to scream. Even the guards started to run away. Oh mine was I that scary?The shadow that came over him made him swiftly forget anything and screech for his life when something came down on his head. Humhum swore he heard a *splat* sound just as he lost conciseness. ---------------- ''Mmmmm....mmmm....''Humhum shifted. His head hurt, his claws stretched as he opened one eye. There was talking. What made the harpy jump up was the feeling of something falling into his hair something cold and slimy. Up right and stiff he moved his fingers to the hair touching the cold substance and seeing it was green. ''mmmmmmm!'' A frustrated hum came from him. This was horrible he will have to take several hours before he even put one feather in the dating business. His eyes had no real trouble adjusting to the dark, his clan was hunting in day and night for fishes in the ocean. So observing a bit around he flapped his wings unintentional hitting the wall behind him. Jumping away from the cold feeling fearing to death he got some of the slime on them, he ended up sitting on the cold well known metal of Peter suit. ''This is not to mine liking mmmhm.... should we break out? hmm?'' His hums short and not amused or happy like used. The door could be a good place to try and destroy. Or get a guard and gorge his eyes as revenge for being put in this cell. No one wouldnt be enough compensation to the soul pain Humhum felt at this moment maybe 25 would do the trick.''We could mmm use peter as a Battering ram. To break the door hm?''

[WilsonTurner]

From the darkness of the cell immediately to the opposite of the great companions' own, the darkness moved. The cell on the other side was at least as big as the one the multiple travelers were in, if not deeper, and showed terrifying signs as a guard walked by with a lantern. The steel- iron probably had broken- bars were bent and horribly scratched, but stayed true, more or less, to their general shape. They were reinforced both horizontally and vertically, as opposed to just the companions' horizontal bars. Some sheets of steel had even been bolted to the bars here and there, close to the ground and higher up, but still leaving gaps. And from the darkness beyond, a creature stirred at the new voices. Several deep, loud snuffling sounds came from the opposite cell, accompanied by scraping sounds of feet across stone. Moments thereafter, a blue glow, in the shape of a rough U, appeared, accompanied by a fierce growl, testing and wary, hungry and angry. The guard passed by, speeding up as he did so with fearful glances, and a shape took form as it approached its' cell door. First, a long, rather narrow snout appeared, topped by a single hard, thick skin-spike of sorts, just behind two more than jutted up from a long underjaw, these two showing a sharper point. The blue glow was revealed to be coming from the creature's slightly-open mouth, as was the growl. The oddly shaped narrow snout gave way to a swept-back hammerhead-like head, the nostrils on either side underneath and behind the two horizontal horn-like protusions, with no visible eyes. As it reached the edges of its cage, the beginning of the rest of the creature could be guessed; heavily muscled and most definitely not pleased. It stopped growling, however, and instead started sniffing all over the bars, as if looking for something new, and then cough-barked, and odd, hoarse sound the resounded all around, from the cages to all the way down the hallway and back. Then it sat down, tilted its head to side in confusion, and looked across the hall through electrolocation, echolocation, and a weaker mass detection sense, very clearly confused at the landshark, blobfish, deep sea diver, and harpy that sat across. Then he leaned forward and started gnawing on a bar, as if it didn't matter anymore.

[BrokenVeil]

The undead diver slowly rose to his feet and removed his dented helmet. At least it had saved everyone from receiving the full weight of that monstrosity's body. He was quick to ask about why and where they are. "Did they know that the money was U.S. property? Wait, I know what is going on. Those filthy siren whores knew I was coming here, so they ambushed us! I swear, when we get out of here I will smash all their stupid trinkets. He began to pace about the cell, thinking of a way to escape.

[RoflsMazoy]

"Well, at least we're all alright." Everyone else seemed to be awake, everyone except for Heena anyways. They hadn't really appeared to experience any lasting damage either, except for Peter's dented helmet. "Maybe, I'll be able to gnaw through the bars." Luka plodded over to the iron bars of the cell. They looked to be too thin to squeeze through, even for Artemis. Luka turned his head sideways, and started nibbling on one of the bars. "Bleh! It's rusty!" Clearly the bars were quite old, and Luka was treated to a mouthful of good old iron oxide. Regardless, he continued nibbling away at the bars, for lack of a better thing to do. But suddenly, he heard a sniffing sound from the cell ahead of them, and then a sudden loud cough of some sort. The cough resonated up and down the cell block, scaring Luka slightly, but he didn't know how the others were. Peering into the darkness, he saw a huge looming figure... Peering even closer, he saw that it too appeared to be nibbling on the bars. "Oh hey!" Luka called through the gloom, "Do you like nibbling too?"