Just a Passing Assassin...

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

 Spiral: Honestly just processing a lot right now. Isn’t true resurrection a myth? I thought there’s always a catch? How long since I died exactly?



Steady:  Who said you were resurrected properly? Your old body is gone and a lot of residual parts with it. You probably don't have most of your old memories. Like...

Steady: How much can you actually remember?

You think for a moment and…

You can’t actually. You can’t recall what actually killed you, or anything beyond a few days before your early demise.

Steady: It’s amazing you have as much of you left as you do but effectively? You’re a new person for the most part. As for how long you’ve been gone? Hard to say, don’t have a record of when you found your way here on hand but we can pull it up. From experience though? Treat it like a clean slate.

Spiral: You said I’m dressed for the job? What exactly is this place? What are they going to have me do?

Steady: Depends on what kind of work you’re willing to do to pay your way out but gist is we have a quest board system. You pick jobs and do them in exchange for goods, mods, and spare bodies. Anything from bounties to investigations.

Steady:. Everything you own is practically currency among the folks here including the body you’re in right now. Treat it that way.

Spiral: So you’re putting me to work.

Steady: Essentially. Well… not me but the guys on top really. I’m in this grind too but I don’t mind too much you know? Don’t have anyone out there waiting as far as I can remember so stable work and a cushy room are good for me.

Spiral: That point then I have to ask, what’s the best advice you have? Like, what do you wish you knew starting out?

 

Steady: Shit uh… Office and maintenance jobs are just as good as any others even if they don’t pay as well as field work. Sometimes you just need to do a safe shift to cool down from the hard stuff.

Steady: On a more personal level? Make friends, kiss girls, die at 69. You do that and you’ll have the best time around here. Anyway…

Steady: Any more questions? Also kind of hungry so we might move onto brunch in a sec…

[Ignispark]

What's good to get for brunch?

[King-Clod]

Just a few. How long have you been working here? Can you leave?

[Lilium Mortem]

how long does it take to get enough dosh to blow this Popsicle stand?

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

 
Spiral: Just a few. First off, recommendations for brunch?



Steady: There’s this platter of grilled skewers that they make regularly, should have it today actually. Grab that with a side of fried egg rice and that’s filling and comfy… The desserts are good too, I'll cover yours today since you just started.

Spiral: Might have to try that.. Secondly I guess I want to know how much dosh do you need to get out of here?

Steady: In a rush to leave? Can't blame you too much... Depends really, plenty of folks here have means to cash out. It’s just not in their interest right now.

Spiral: What about you? How long have you been at this? Can you leave?



Steady: Years really, I’ve had the chance to call quits a few times but I dunno… I don’t really know what I’d do after. I got a life here and nothing out there. Even if I manage to remember anyone I don’t really feel like the same person I might’ve been before all this. It’d be kind of just upsetting… I don’t want to talk about that too much though, I’ll ruin the mood on your first day.

Steady: If you wanna work your way out you absolutely can though but well…



4D: If I may chime in, it’s likely been years since your untimely demise. Steady here was kept dormant quite a while before being revived. You likely have been gone a long time yourself too…

Steady: Yeah..

You’ve absolutely upset her a bit, seems like leaving is a bit of a sensitive topic… Maybe you should shift the direction of the conversation a bit.

[Ignispark]

Use a classic maneuver. Poorly segued minutia. So, how about that weather?

[Lilium Mortem]

Sorry, I just don't want to live my life on someone else's terms. even if I can't go back to what I had before, I still want to go out and see the world, make something new that's mine.

[Guest]

What's something to avoid at brunch? Is the orange juice too bitter or do they steep the tea too long or anything like that?
-Marxz-

[King-Clod]

You mentioned making friends as a point of advice, what's the crowd around here like?

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

 Spiral: So uh… you mentioned friends? What’s the crowd like around here?



Steady: Oh? They’re pretty chill around here as long as you’re not starting shit. Everyone just wants to vibe really. If you're up for it, I can introduce you to a few of my guys here. At least one of them is bound to click with you right?

Spiral: Sure.. part of brunch?

Steady: Yeah, we can eat after. Follow me, we’ll hit the hub.

You don’t really have much choice here anyway..

Spiral: So uh…anything to avoid?

Steady: Huh? Like you mean just in general or…

Spiral: Food-wise. Like is the orange juice too bitter or does the tea steep too long…

Steady: Oh! The OJ is always good so don’t sweat.



Steady: Tea? Ehhhh… hard to say. Never really drink it. Tea and Coffee always end up burning me so I avoid them like the plague.

Spiral: Fair enough..

You’re taken to a bunch of tables where people are sitting. You see Steady point to two in particular.



Steady: Some of my buds are here right now so it's a good time. Who do you want to sit with first?


On table A, a Dragon-esque person is enjoying a hot bowl of soup. He seems warm and friendly.



On table B, a moody looking robot treats themself to a nice dessert. Perhaps they’re hiding a sweet side under their cold expression.

[Lilium Mortem]

pull table A and B together and force a group meeting

[Stonek]

Table A, he looks cool enough

[Ignispark]

Bring a third table in between the two. maximize friendship coefficients. bring tables together with addition. speedrun colleague acquiring.

[King-Clod]

Table A!

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

You go for a blitz and slam three tables together with your new body’s incredible strength.



Steady: What the fuck dude.



???: O-Oh?!


???: You spilled my dessert…



???: They don’t pay me enough for this…

You give them all a wide grin.

Steady dives in to save you.

Steady: Sorry, the  newcomer got excited to meet folks. I’ll compensate for the dessert…so uh.

Steady: On the left we got Rico, he works in monitoring.

Rico: I’ll be watching you and keeping update feeds going while you take up jobs. We’ll be working together plenty.

On the Right we got Fiddle, they’re on field work just me and possibly you depending on how things work out. 

The robot seemed too shy to give any response. Instead they looked down at their knocked over ice cream with a deep melancholy.

Steady: You going to be okay…?



Fiddle: My Ice Cream...

Steady: I’m so fucking sorry….

Steady: Anyway uh…. Middle guy is um… we don’t talk much actually.



???: Name’s Dell, not surprised. I handle the quest lineup in the backrooms for ya’ll to work with. We got a lot of investigations lately so the rookie should be fine. Anyway… yours are ready to look at whenever. Just... please don't do that again. Being hellspawn means that sort of sudden movement is going to destabilize my ass for a week.



Dell: Ugh, gonna need someone to anchor me after lunch...

That looks pretty bad right now...



Steady: Right so uh…

She leans to whisper at you.

Steady: Say something please...

[King-Clod]

we can fix this. just gotta hit them with the ooool razzle dazzle

"Hiya! Nice to meet y'all! Sorry about the table thing, got a little carried away there, heh. My name's Spiral Renegade, what's yours?"

wait frick she already told us

"What sorta missions do you guys like to do?"

[Ignispark]

ah yeah following up with your name is probably a good idea. uh. ask them their favorite color? maybe some other small questions to distract them from the fact that you somehow managed to screw things up in the span of a few moments.

[MarxzVulpez]

Oh god, I'm so sorry about your dessert, we'll make it up to you as soon as we can
Nice to meet you all, sorry I got carried away there. still getting used to everything, just "woke up" recently.

[Lilium Mortem]

I am not used to being this strong. Sorry. I just wanted to talk to everyone and... It seemed like a good idea at the time. Maybe I was an asshole. I'll bottle up that existential crisis for later, what is up fellow zombie people?

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

 You try to rescue this as best you can.

Spiral: Didn’t know my own strength there, new body and all..

Spiral: Nice to meet ya’ll, sorry for getting carried away there! I’ll uh… make  up for the dessert whenever we can…



Rico: No worries, first day and all that right?

He looks over at Fiddle.

Rico: You going to be okay?



Fiddle: I guess so, just a rough work week.. I get it though.

Spiral: I’ll make good on it once we got cash.... So uh… name’s Spiral Renegade, yours?

Wait no you already were told that.

Spiral: Right so um.. Rico and Fiddle and uh… Dell?

Dell has seemingly melted onto the floor, replying in static noises.



Steady: Yeah… hellspawn bodies were kind of an experiment that didn’t work out but also the process of modding or replacing one is risky so a few folks got bad luck here.

Steady: They were meant to be able to do all the ghostly things. Turn invisible, hide in walls, possession of objects, but uh… yeah.

Steady: He’ll probably respawn soon…



Spiral: Respawn...?

Steady: I mean yeah, right now everyone is linked to a respawner that scoops you up and puts you back together.

Spiral: Ah! So um… what type of work does everyone do here then if we need one of those?

Steady: A lot of investigation and bounty work.

Rico: Mission control really, I’m no good at fighting..



Fiddle: Hit jobs. Some things in this world aren’t meant to exist.

Steady: Yeah… we’ll probably not put you on those off the bat. Investigation work is always a good early option though. Sometimes it’s as simple as monitoring potential threats to the world and sometimes it’s collecting samples of supernatural oddities to turn into potential body mods.

Steady: We can look at some job listings while we eat. This kitchen has pretty much anything you can think of.

Fiddle: Best ice cream in the multiverse…



Steady: Yeah… anyway let’s order something before we overview yeah? Feel free to ask questions too really, I know it’s kind of a lot right now.