壱

[oneeyedfish]

...I smell dirt.

*after getting up and looking around* No, wait; that's sulfur. This isn't where I went set up camp...is it?

Mm? *looking up* ...Huh. It can't be a good omen for the sky to be that color. Is a storm coming, I wonder?*stoops down, pinches a clump of charred dirt between his thumb and forefinger, and studies it for a few seconds,

Comments

[ttlyanoracle]

Oh, look. Another hostage. Welcome to Hell; try to enjoy your stay.

[oneeyedfish]

Thank you for the welcome.

Any suggestions for doing that?

[ttlyanoracle]

Stay away from the Prinnies, watch the news a lot, find a decent shelter underground to hide when someone passes an annoying Bill and/or goes on a murderous rampage, don't eat the food, and sleep with one eye open.

All those should help.

[oneeyedfish]

....

I appreciate the advise, but it doesn't do me much good if I don't know half the terminology you just used. "Prinnies"? "watch the news"?

Also, sleeping with one eye open doesn't really mean much to me. -_W *has one eye*

[ttlyanoracle]

How the hell am I supposed to know you've only got one eye? It's not like you can see both of them with all that hair in the way. [As if she's one to talk... Another year or so and her own bangs will be down to her eyes.]

But Prinnies are the little penguin things you'll see walking around the castle. They're always up to no good and if you hit them, they explode.

There's a news broadcast here, too, that comes on at midnight now and again. They tell you about any recent Bills- like, requests and stuff- that the Dark Assembly passes or rejects. Most of them are bad for everyone.

Anything else you need explained?

[oneeyedfish]

*eye twitch at her attitude, but keeps quiet while she explains things, he'll need that info*

The Dark Assembly...they're something like the town council, I take it, then? They sound bad at their jobs.

I guess I don't know what else I should be expecting here. It sounds like an incredibly dangerous place, but most of the people I've run into here didn't sound all that panicked by the situation.

[ttlyanoracle]

[She's just very, very cranky today. It's not you, really. That, and she's a bitch, but.]

Pretty much. If you want anything you don't already have, you have to send a Bill through them. Unless you bribe them, scare them, or threaten them with swift and painful death, you probably won't get it.

Oh, it is. Most people don't care because we're either all used to it or nothing here is actually dangerous enough to hurt them. Demons, Overlords, etcetera.

[oneeyedfish]

*quiet sigh through his nose* ...If Baal thought that I was strong enough to take on demons and overlords, he was misinformed.

Where is the safest place to hideout from all this chaos? I was headed for the castle, but I was told that that is where our 200-foot-tall captor overlord lives.

[ttlyanoracle]

Unless you piss someone off or just want a fight, you probably won't have to fight anyone. Nobody's expecting you to, really.

And, ironically enough, the castle might be a little safer than staying outside. Overlord Baal does live here- or so I've been told-but you probably won't ever see him. I haven't yet, and there's at least a little shelter from the volcano and any roving demons outside.