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((Description of the setting: Taurus Temple ))

It was early morning at Taurus Temple, and Gabriel was there doing his typical chores. He was wearing a baggy white tee shirt that looked to be at least two sizes two big, and a baggy pair of jeans that likewise looked to be too large for him. His shaggy brown hair was a little messy, and he looked sleepy as he swept up the floor. The only odd thing on his person was a strange green and gold gauntlet made from chains. He'd give a wide yawn, pausing to look around. The place was in pretty decent shape, but Gabriel would probably spend awhile cleaning it anyway, until the entire place was spotless. He had a promise to keep after all.

He had come to enjoy the quiet times when nobody else was around, he'd always felt most comfortable here. Anybody that had such powers would likely be able to tell that Gabriel wasn't quite human, but it was unclear as to what he actually was.

((I'm assuming that the Nexus is some kind of extra-planar space not strictly tied to reality. I'll be writing this post based on that assumption, so if I'm wrong, let me know now so I don't keep making wrong assumptions! I'll also make some assumptions about Nexus that you can feel free to correct.))

Izzy walked down the broad avenues of Nexus, almond-shaped eyes wide and staring at the many strange sights the bizarre, un-City presented to her. She was dressed in a bright blue and white tie-dyed skirt with a blindingly white loose linen shirt. She had thin, wire-framed glasses perched on her nose and a silver pentacle around her neck. In her longish nose, she had a silver stud. She walked as tourist, dazzled by the newness of everything around her. Here she stops to gaze at passersby: strange animal-human hybrids, monstrosities from nether regions, satyrs, lesser gods, and even a few humans all rubbed shoulders through the busy city, intent on their own business. The sounds of Nexus were alien, yet familiar. Here a gruff voice might yell in ancient Phoenician a curse at a bull-headed minotaur, there a silvery voice might speak in the musical tones of Sylvan as she laughed with a friend. It was enough to make any magician new to the Art feel small and lost.

Finally, seemingly at her wits' end, she stumbled through the gates to Taurus temple and just sat herself on the ground near the rose bushes, her head in her hands, her breath coming hard. It was difficult to maintain the spells which kept her here with her head spinning so much and it was so much easier to concentrate amid the smell of roses and marigolds...

((the nexus originated from the chat we came from; rather than the medeival repository idea kim had, the old chat had a city. Mostly humanoid, but yes, people with wings or whiskers or faeries or what have you. I'll put my post up in a moment.)

Hopefully nobody was too stunned when a flash of light birthed something; Ferous didn't enjoy theatrics, but to move a certain something with, the crystal the... Young elder was made of had been used as a talisman. Populus was a five foot ten figure clad in dangerous leather jacket and pants ripped with odd angled zippers. A white mop of hair looked like it was never tamed and scholar's glasses only took a slight edge off of the stormy eyes set behind them. Fingerless gloved hand out, Ferous dropped something with a loud thud. Some kindergarten tot sized cat creature with horns, at first glance. Apparently Ferous hadn't expected others present any more than Gabriel had. ((...part two coming...))

It grumbled in something archaic, though the "dude" he grumbled in the midst had no phonecian translation. Good job, Gabe. In many ways it looked like an adolescent male lion, although the mane was filling out early with an overall shag, and bullish horns swept backwards. It brushed itself up and righting itself, exposing a relative human torso etched out with some odd scalings...when not lost beneath the fur. The claws themselves, while weilded like hands, had a hawkish, rough and longfingered look. Its rear toes hardened and clumped together, only hinting at a few digits. And the sharp tail like a scorpion was more applied to balance. It lifted its head, features managing to portray a very human pride and rebellion.

Gabriel had a tingling feeling that someone was outside, since she'd safely passed through the wards. He was about to go and see when Ferous dropped in and...dropped off Ash. Literally. Gabe's happy smile at seeing Ferous is fading, "Uh oh...what happened?" He'd look at Ash when the creature spoke, and he'd tilt his head, a bird like habit of his, "Did he just...say...dude...?" Yeah seriously Gabe, good job. He'd glance back at the door and then to Ferous, "I'm pretty sure someone is here." He was a little preoccupied at the moment though, but the doors were open, he figured if the person wanted to come inside they would.

"Pops doesn't seem happy that I found out who's in charge here." ...oh. English now. Of course, it was no basal voice. It wasn't even pubescent, just gruff from animal attributes. Nostrils flared larger than a cat, reflecting the young bullesque slope of the face trying to vaguely fashion itself akin to a human--bull and cat more than anything. "Feathery nuisance." ...apparently Ferous' strict language planners had paid off. Sort of. Now they understood what he was saying in protest. (c)

Ferous' eye ticked uncontrollably, one half of the face torqued and exposing bared teeth. Ferous was at a loss of words. "You... Bull-headed..." rather than exploding, which gabe may have had fear of, Ferous strutted towards the door upon mention of someone nearby. The leathery figure stood in the open door and lit a cigarette with a tap of the fingertip to ignite the cherry.

Gabriel almost fell over when Ash started speaking, "Oh...I can understand you now." He's looking back and forth between Ferous and Ash, obviously confused on what was going on. "Ah...I'm sorry but I don't know what you mean..." Feathery nuisance? In charge? Gabe's really clueless. He'll watch Ferous go off, and he'll look at Ash, "She probably just needs a minute alone." He'll lean against his broom handle, and he hopes that she isn't terrifying whoever is outside. He knows from first hand experience that she can be pretty scary.

"When did you start speaking English?" Maybe if he could change the topic some of the tension would go away? At least that's what he was hoping for, he'd never done well with confrontation or with anger.

“Four… three… two… one.” Izzy breathed out slowly, her eyes still closed, finally completing the breathing exercise her mentor, sometimes lover, and roommate had taught her. She became more concious of the world around her now and opened her eyes, looking around. To her surprise, she found that she was sitting in the middle of a garden in a checkerboard pattern. Roses and marigolds surrounded her. She found that she was sitting in the middle of a patch of marigolds, crushing the orange and yellow blossoms beneath her. “Shhhhii…oot!” She almost swore, but choked it off in the middle and turned it harmless. Words have power, after all.

Izzy hopped out of the patch of marigolds, doing her best to avoid trampling any more of the beautiful flowers and looked around worriedly. To her consternation, she found a young man with a green gauntlet on one arm leaning on a broom in the doorway of a low brownstone building. The building was curiously designed, much like all the other buildings in Nexus, and Izzy wasn’t too sure of what to make of it. Brushing her bottom off, she squared her shoulders and walked up to the young man.

“Look,” she said contritely, “I’m sorry about the flowers. I’m new here and all of a sudden I just got… overwhelmed, I guess. Is there anything I can do to… uh, well, fix it?” She pushed her glasses up nerviously and uncounciously chewed her lip in consternation.

"He thinks he's boss." Ferous grunted, expelling a cloud of Camel smoke. It wasn't any surprise when the girl targetted Gabe for conversation instead of Ferous upon the doorstep. Despite the potentially dangerous visual appeal, there was a certain aura to Ferous that tended to ...obscure the person there. Ferous was far from the most social of entities. The voice that escaped was ambiguous at best. "I can take care of it. When I feel like it." Ferous wasn't in the best mood towards the patron. Ferous didn't need to speak on what happened... Ash handled that.

"I -am- the boss." the cubthing boasted, brows hoisting and grin creasing the jaw. "Watch. Sit down, Pops." amidst the other actions at the steps, ferous looked five kinds of frustrated in a few seconds before sitting down abruptly and continuing smoking. "...He thought me knowing your words makes things easy." his odd tail flicked. Okay. It was more like a proficieny foreigner at some points, but effective enough.

Izzy was getting a little tired of staring in wonder, it was happening so much in the past half hour that it was beginning to wear off. She hadn’t seen the other two…people…before because she had latched onto the least strange thing in the vicinity. Now that the lion-minotaur and its cub-thing had spoken though, Izzy forced herself to acknowledge them. She decided to put on a blasé attitude. “Well, I’m sorry anyway. About the flowers I mean. What a nice…” and here she cast her eyes around the temple grounds desperately trying to come to grips with what the place actually was, “…place you have here. Do you come here often?” Shoot, now she sounded like an idiot as well as a tourist.

"He built it." Ferous stared blankly out at the street, not entertained, but pointed over the shoulder to Gabriel. "My only credit is the mural restoration." which... wasn't visible anywhere inside or out, actually. "I stay in the woods when I can." and with that came relative silence.

Gabriel seemed a bit surprised when the girl outside not only seemed normal, but spoke to him in a civil tone. However, Ash is soon taking his complete attention and he frowns at the catbullcreature. "That's not nice. You are NOT the boss. You're being an ill mannered brat. Let her get up. Right now." He doesn't appear to be joking around either, and judging by the way he was griping the broom he was close to losing his temper with the young thing.

As for the argument of him building it, "It was a group effort." He'd glance at the girl, "Don't worry about the flower, come in if you'd like. I'd say we don't bite but I'm not sure about this one." He'd tilt his head at the creature, "I'm Gabriel." If she came inside, he'd offer his hand for a shake. He knew better than to try and talk to Ferous right now, he'd rather she didn't have an explosion.

Izzy walked over to Gabriel, being careful to move deliberately and slowly so as not to startle the other… people. She didn’t know how much they shared with their animal forms, but the leonine one, the one who liked the woods, worried her slightly. Gratefully, she took Gabriel’s hand and shook it. “Thanks, Gabriel! I really mean it,” she gushed, “It’s my first time out of my home dimension alone, and I chose Nexus! Gods, this place is huge! And strange… No offense, of course. “ She said this quickly, glancing over her shoulder at [Ferous] and [Ash].

“There’s something I’m supposed to say when I meet extraplanars on their home turf…” she mutters, thinking, still gripping Gabriels hand. Her brow furrows in concentraition, then her face lights up in a bright smile, “Ah, I remember now! Here goes: I am a wizard on Errantry, and I greet you in the name of Life! There! You can tell I’m a bit new at this…”

Draeval hadn't popped into the Temple for quite sometime now, and honestly he hadn't been out much at all. He'd been working on his bar, trying to get it together and of course there was that little stint with him recovering that had taken him out of the game for a bit.

Drae wasn't as flamboyant as some when he popped out of thin air, he just kind of appeared with a little flash of orange, he couldn't help it that was the color of his magic. And he pops in on...Gabe telling Ash he isn't the boss? Huh? He blinked and looked around. There was a Poppy, a Gabe, and a...who is that?

"Um..'ey guyz..." That's a fantastic greeting Draeval.

Yet another new person! This one just appeared in a flash of orange in the middle of the room…Curiouser and curiouser! The man appeared to be in his early thirties or so, but on the planes which Izzy had spelled herself to see, she could make out a confusing variety of forms, many of which had lupine features. “Ah, merry meet! I’m Izzy… What’s your name?”

“I’m being a brat?” It leaned forward like a prowling animal, grinning deeply. “I’m… why you keep saying her?! Her is female syntax! He!” It sat back up only to throw its hands out to the side.

…Ferous looked paniced for a moment—surely a rare thing for Gabe to see from the wild grey eyes that darted back at him. Yeah, that part hadn’t come up, apparently, and Ferous wanted it to stay that way. As for leonine—perhaps the hair could qualify. Ferous definitely had Father’s mane, or at least that’s how it appeared at a glance. Enough time around her and one tends to find it to be something else entirely. Elsewise, it was the crude and unexpected public appearance of Alipes M Conti; a lawyer according to the plaque next door, but far from it in visual appeal when not doing rare business.
Pop-ins weren’t entirely unexpected. Ferous dealt with it constantly from Via. “Hey, Drae.” First the familiar presence, then the obvious accent—Ferous didn’t even need to turn, staying squatted on the step with the cigarette, staring toward the street but hailing with a flippant gesture. “Forget it, Gabriel. Might as well tell him not to go to an elephant graveyard.” Ferous wasn’t thrilled with the young-king, and decided to use a clear simile.
…Isabelle’s greeting earned a grunt and a nod, with no clearly offered description or bold introduction to counter. If she was trying any kind of far sight to perceive Ferous beyond the human… it would be surprisingly difficult. Those who even define anything past the distortion—much like the heat over a flame—might find it cloistered, like a closed clam or a pair of wings shrouding whatever was beneath. “You’re probably just in a dream state if you’re wandering. That or you’ve actually woken up, in which case it might be a while before you get out of here.” Right, Gabe, Rafe, all the ‘normal’ people in the neighborhood?

No name given; typical of Ferous.