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Post by Kalaboo on Jun 7, 2019 16:32:36 GMT -6
Hell… somewhat reminded Kalabas of Vegeta. It was very red, and bursting to the seams with mean-looking gruff types. Strangely enough a number of these people were actually quite nice: in celebration of his arrival the Duke was given a fruit basket and not the thousand lashes he had expected… huh. Kalabas thanked his welcoming committee, recognizing a couple of them as men that had served under him, and then vividly suggested the lot of them to leave his apartment post haste under threat of an emotional outburst that would, most certainly, shatter their otherworldly bodies with sheer golden light. It was a white lie that worked wonders, Kalabas was left alone in his room to sit on his bed and contemplate on his life choices.
The morning after the loner set out to find a bar. He asked around and soon found one such establishment, although the decor hinted at one of those teahouses one could find here and there on Earth only with with an ogresque twist to it. Out of his element and preferred state of existence, Kalabas decided to start light on the drinking. It was, after all, quite early in the morning, although, of course, he had no idea or way of telling what time it actually was, but this tiny illusion among other dozens helped him stay grounded and not lose his grip on himself because sour memories of his squandered life came and went and he-
“Haio~.” Kalabas snapped out of his downward spiraling, giving the strangely clad waitress a look.
“Hello.”
“Can I take your ord-” “Yes.” cut Kalabas, gripping at his side of the table, leaning forward as his eyes opened and a bead of sweat circled around his twitching eyebrow “Pray, may you be so kind as to fetch me a glass of water?”
The underpaid waitress smiled in vacant awkwardness. “I'm afraid we don't serve-” “My kind?” “-water, sir...”
“Of course you don't...” Kalabas buried his face in his hands, exhaling and then speaking through his interlaced fingers “ What, then, do you people drink? The blood of the damned?”
“Yes!” the waitress giggled. Then she shrieked when Kalabas' hair spiked and turned gold for but an instant, giving up on hazing the new arrival and speed-walking away to fetch him a pitch of water and a glass. When she returned she trembled thusly: “It's o-on the house, sir... P-please don't break anything.” And Kalabas turned on his chair three times, each time failing to find a comfortable spot. This was truly hell. “Thank you.” he said, waving the creature away as he took a sip and smacked his lips. The water tasted like water. He was impressed.
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Post by Karon on Jun 9, 2019 15:10:35 GMT -6
Karon's PL: 24,000
Items: Scouter
The little teahouse-esque bar wasn't one Karon had ever been to before, but it was quaint, and the drinks were good enough. He ran into another couple of ogres, both red, and they shared a table to drink and commiserate about their respective jobs helping the Afterlife run smooth. Eventually one had to leave, and the other followed soon after, so Karon was left drinking alone. He wasn't sitting at his table moping, of course, that would be depressing. He simply wanted to finish the last drink he'd paid for, and then he'd be on his merry way too. Karon wasn't one for deep contemplation, so he just let his thoughts wander where they would, content.
And then a waitress screamed.
Karon whipped around (along with several other patrons) just in time to see gold hair turning to black. The poor ogre woman hurried away, but Karon's eyes were on the man she was waiting on. He was mortal, or rather, had been, and it only took a moment for Karon to remember why he was so familiar. It was hard to forget a messier mop of hair than the ogre's own, but the Saiyan sure had one. He'd been the one that had accosted him on the spaceship, the guy with the little girl and terrible fashion sense. Kalabos, or something to that effect. He waited until the waitress returned with what appeared to be simply water (this guy couldn't get any more boring), then got up and approached his table.
"Hey, Strongbone!" Karon called over to him. The surname was much catchier and easier to recall, "Fancy meeting you down here. So you got killed in that battle after all, huh?" The last time Karon had seen him, Kalabas had been off to fight on Arcose. The rest of the crew went off to Vegeta, where Karon hung around for a while before traveling back to Otherworld without a word to anyone, "Wasn't expecting to run into you, honestly, you seemed like a tough bastard. But I guess there's always one tougher," and he reached up to flick at Kalabas' halo and send it spinning with a little snicker.
He pulled out a chair and sat it in backward, leaning forward in the backrest and giving a lopsided grin, "So, what got you in the end. There's a great battle story there, I'm sure."
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Post by Kalaboo on Jun 9, 2019 18:14:13 GMT -6
A voice called, one that Kalabas expected to sooner or later hear, a flash of familiarity in an otherwise almost overwhelmingly alien underworld. As the ogre approached Kalabas stood up, asking the shaken waitress to bring “Two beers, if you will.” He sat again and quickly finished his water, evidently pleased by seeing someone he had met in life right up until the exact moment Karon brought up Kalabas’ demise. He appeared to be more interested in the event than the reason, so perhaps the saiyan could curtail the truth to produce a story that would make its teller less prone to inner-spiralling? Unlikely, at best.
“How fare you, Karon?” two frosty bottles were placed between the dead Duke and the not-heran, allowing the former one more instant to think on what he would say… and whether he should say anything at all. Kalabas sighed, his gaze focused on something miles away “I… am still recovering from the shock of my death. I died, yes, but not on Arcose. I actually did quite well there… Yes...” and it was true! Sure he had lost his tail in a ultimately futile operation, but that paled when compared to his final battle... What anger! He was red with it, veins throbbing and hand shaking as he took hold of his brew and took a swig… He jolted, looking at the empty bottle, was nothing here downright horrible or unpleasant? Just the people, he guessed. He slammed the bottle down, sighing as he signaled for four shots.
“First allow me to come to grips with my own mortality... And the fact that it ended. Then I will entertain you with the tragedy of my last living moments.” he hovered his closed fist over the table “If the help bulletin is to be trusted this process of intermittent anger interspaced with fits of compulsive crying, laughter, and emptiness is normal. So, let us keep it that way by not making any mention of my short, tumultuous life for the coming few days, please.” Kalabas was served right after he was over, he looked at the glistening glasses “Keep the mind busy and the heart can do but follow, this should help keep me calm, no? Distract me, Karon, tell me of Hell, explain to me why it is a so much better place than its reputation would lead a mortal like me to believe, because... Karon, I was given a fruit basket. It was delicious and my innards appear to still be in order, nothing about” he gesticulated wildly with his hands at all around “this looks and feels like Hell should!” He downed the four shots, burping some ki under his breath “Whew, pardon me... Do not misunderstand what I say, Karon, I am glad that Hell is as good a place as you said! Better, even, have you seen the sights?” Kalabas, like the animal he was, was not talking about any geographical landmarks.
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Post by Karon on Jun 13, 2019 13:42:44 GMT -6
Karon gratefully took the beer as it was set down in front of him, and unlike Kalabas and his mad chugging, he took his time sipping. He'd already drank a bit before he ran into the Saiyan, and he had no intent on getting sloshed right now. Apparently, Kalabas had survived the bout on Arcose, which was news to him. He'd never seen the man after he'd flown off to do battle, so he assumed, reasonably, he thought, that he'd died. What had killed him then? It was a mystery his drinking partner wasn't about to divulge, as he ordered four shots directly following the beer. Karon had assumed they were to split between them, and his eyebrows shot up in surprise as Kalabas downed one after the next all by himself. Damn. But Karon didn't comment yet, he just let the Duke (ex-Duke? Whatever) ramble on until he came to a natural pause.
"It's a four-shot kinda death, huh?" He finally replied, "Alright, alright, I won't pry. I was just curious as all, but if you never want to tell me that's fine too, it's honestly not important to me." He shrugged and took another sip of his beer. His words seemed genuine. To him, talk of death was casual conversation, just as someone might talk about the weather, or a sports team. It was, maybe ironically, his life, and so he thought nothing of it, "And all the emotional crap you're talking about is grief, so yeah, that's pretty normal." At the mention of the fruit basket, Karon laughed, "Ah, yeah, there's folks down here that do that. There's some belief that if you 'purify' a soul before it goes through the recycler, y'know, make them happy and junk, the reincarnation process will be more...favorable? I don't know, I don't pay attention to that sort of thing."
"Anyway, Hell, hrm...how much have you seen so far? There's the mountains if you're a hiking man, and the forests, though we don't have much greenery, not like up top," he gestured to the ceiling but presumably meant Heaven and the Upper Worlds, "The most pleasant place is probably the Great Lake, I grew up in a town not far from there. The fishing is good, but I bet the creatures aren't like any you've seen," and Karon gave a mischievous grin then. He didn't want to say too much, he'd like to see the look on Kalabas' face if he fished up one of the hellish creatures in that lake.
"Other than that, there's little places like this. Towns and villages, outposts along the road for travelers. We're a bit less organized than up there, nothing like Ogretown with all the offices, but we get on well enough. I prefer it, honestly, but I gotta head up there for work so, what can ya do?" He nudged his elbow in Kalabas' direction, but didn't actually touch him, in a friendly fashion, despite the fact that the Saiyan would have no idea what ogre work was like.
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Post by Kalaboo on Jun 13, 2019 14:47:55 GMT -6
Kalabas pounded his chest, stifling a burp, at last warmed by the liquor. Not that the pleasantly warm buzz showed on his face, he looked serious as ever, a bit glassy, a bit dead, a bit angry, the usual. But alas, this was his life now, and although the company could be better, it could be way, way worse… Which reminded him - where the devil did that jukani scientist go?
“Heh.” he half-chuckled, half-sighed, half-despaired halfway into murderous madness at the ogre’s joke, he was as likely to slap him as he was to bump his shoulder. The late Duke did neither, he simply rested his head on his hand and listened to his drinking buddy talk. Karon was certainly lacking in any knowledge on the workings of the living realms, but he knew his otherworldly stuff, his shared wisdom was like salve on Kalabas’ existential wound, hearing from a trusted another that this maelstorm of emotion was normal brought some peace to the saiyan, he took a deep breath and finally smiled, even laughing along with the fake heran - the fruit basket was quite an adorable gesture, and he was glad that there was such a silly belief as karmic feel-good resurrection, he hoped it was true, he hoped his past life was calmer that his had been, but as glorious too! Kalabas decided to hold off on his resurrection, he had unfinished business, an entire lifetime of the stuff, that he would like to see finished before… the inevitable recycling of his whole being. Life was precious, afterlife too, the biological death was a process as natural as the spiritual recycling, he could see that now. Of course, deep in thought as he was, he only half-heard Karon, who from the saiyan’s nods must have thought that he had his full attention. Oops. He down looked at the blue elbow that aimed for his forearm but did not connect, was that a friendly display of sorts? Kalabas leaned on his chair so the bodyparts hit. “What can one do indeed… Well, Karon, I must say, you are a pleasant enough chap. I trust that if you were to guide me along through those hellish places you spoke of you would not take me into a back alley and shank me with your horn… So, would you please do that? Not the shanking, of course, but the guiding. The walk. I wish to walk and meander and muse about things, catch fish, train… Although, I must admit, by sights I meant the damned and attendants, not the geographical beauty of this admittedly enthralling underworld. I saw an ogress here, red as that boiling blood lake, she...” Kalabas made exaggerated motions of waves with his hands and left it at that.
“You're a fighter, yes? What style?”
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Paige
Archived
ARCHIVED - XP/PL TRANSFERRED TO KANTO
PL: 40,000
Mercurius (x2P)
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Post by Paige on Jun 14, 2019 18:47:31 GMT -6
Paige had used Kai-Kai to travel to Hell twice before. Never before, though, had it ever had a 'slip-up'. Paige assumed it could be attributed to her low Power Level, at least in part, though that didn't make the sensation of materializing mid-air about ten meters from the ground a good one. The blue Shinjin blinked, suspended in air for just a moment before gravity took hold - dragging her towards the grass below. Paige's arm failed in a futile motion as she crashed, giving a huff of annoyance as she stood up and brushed herself off.
Her reason for coming? Well... she wanted to get a bit of a head start on her research. Potentially visiting the damned would be beneficial in order to see the darker side of mortals - though she was already well aware that the rather luxurious nature of HFIL tended to cause most of its' residents to be a bit more docile and reserved... which she didn't particularly mind when it came to keeping her 'life'. She needed to be truly alive, after all, in order to travel the mortal realms freely.
A bit disoriented from her unfortunate happenstance, Paige refocused on her immediate surroundings - a small building decorated with refreshment-style advertisements covering it. An ogre-run eatery, most likely. The Kai nodded, stepping out of the bush she was lodged in and ignoring the confused stares of a few Hellish Residents to make her ways towards it. She hadn't ever found a need to really stop at a place like this in HFIL before, but there's a first time for everything.
Pushing open the door, she surveyed the scene. A little under half the people inside were Ogres - that split between the staff and patrons, while the rest seemed to be members of other species. She recognized most except for one... really tall male with black hair - who seemed to be engaged in conversation with an Ogre. He looked a bit... intimidating if nothing else - especially with the enormous energy signature he was outputting.
It landed somewhere in the hundred thousand-ish zone, a clear mountain of force - which made it all the more odd. He looked rather young, so to be dead he either took his own life or was slain by a foe as equally as strong. Paige was hesitant to find out just how many people of this man's caliber were waiting in the Mortal Realms... er. She was staring slightly. The Shinjin coughed, moved a bit further in and sitting not too far from the duo - pulling her scarf a bit higher as an Ogre wandered over.
"Just something to drink, if you could." She murmured quietly.
Power Level: 100
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