You Wake Up In A Bar

Alright, that's it. You're feeling a fight coming on- Helen's giving Sublimate a fierce, intimidating gaze- and Laren and Stax, at the least, are incredibly unnerved. Vebbin, Nadezhda and Voronezh are doing better, but it's no question: either the Honkit quiets down or leaves, and you aren't going to give it another option.

You grab the Unshaken and begin prepping ingredients. Potent ones.












Vebbin glances over at what you're doing, amidst the loud honking and blaring of raised voices.

The Unshaken viciously rumbles and crackles as you shut it tightly. You could feel a reaction coming on-- but when it's closed, it ceases. Seems you stopped it right before a vicious climax, but now your shaker is glowing.

She's... maybe not wrong. Even with the reaction paused, light is shining through the Unshaken like it's a lighthouse. And you're not sure you can actually make it calm down-- it's like things are completely paused in there.

This is a crucial moment. If Helen doesn't want to play ball, you're going to have to play... bartender.




...Maybe that'll have some kind of effect! A secret phrase hidden between the honks! It's worth a try.

The bar shakes violently with an explosion supersceding even the loud noise Helen made-- the one which caused you to loosen your grip on the Unshaken, releasing its payload.

The bolt of energy rips through the honkit, and in a moment, nothing remains but smoke. The lid of the Unshaken, seemingly unbroken, impales itself in the wall of the bar several inches.

After pulling her hands off the side of her head, the first one to speak is Nadezhda.






Everyone pauses to take a breath.








After having pulled it free from the wall with a bit of effort, Laren walks over and hands you the lid-- relieved to see the honkit gone, and clearly not relieved to see it done in such a way.






Sublimate lets out a creaky laugh.






With that, the mechanical swan is gone again, both slightly shocked and entertained.




Ah, you've had a thought about this one!








Another thought rattles in the back of your head-- and you figure it's a good a time as any to bring it up.








Nadezhda glares at Stax.








You decide you're going to glare at Stax a little, too. Guy maybe could use some of it, even though you can tell he's... trying to be... better? Kinda?








A pause. The room cools down a little. Vebbin shifts a bit in his seat, floating around and sipping at his mug, which he seems to be really enjoying, despite the circumstances.






You think of pressing a bit further just then, but the door barges open-- and in comes a patron! Or... a... group of patrons? One big patron with many heads?

It's a lot of twisted multicolored bodies, necks, and legs, with heads poking out, all facing different directions. Two solemn legs at the bottom move the mass around, and after a few failed movements, they all land on Helen's former seat, squirming and chattering to each other. Finally, they speak to you-- all five heads in half-unison.


















...Cops! Cops? They don't look like cops. Hopefully they're not here because of your recent honkit disposal. Either way, this is an opportunity to try and make their order before they've even ordered. That'd be pretty neat and pretty surprising, or it might fall flat on its face. Your mileage may vary.

There's also orders from Laren, Nadezhda and Voronezh to fulfill. But at least you no longer have a source of ear-shattering noise in town.

Today's been alright so far.

...You just get this nagging feeling in the back of your neck that you're not done with Helen.



Cup status: 2 occupied (Time Flier Frame, Time Flier Frame), 1 dirty (Ashen Corrugible), 1 broken, 6 free
Plate status: 1 occupied (Laren's WIP [1/3] ), 1 dirty (The Sate Catsberry), 2 free
Mug status: 1 occupied (Vebbin's MAM), 1 free
Scavenger ability: Unavailable (0/1 uses)
Intrusive ability: Enabled

Despite the fact that it wasn't ingested, your most recent created weapon-drink has a variety of ingredients added to the Cabinet:

Author's NotesShow

3 for you today, translators.

Is Helen really gone?

Alright, so, sorry for the delay! I got a cold on Thursday night and it really hit me over the weekend, but I'm ecstatic about being able to release this ywupdate today. Sorry that it's a bit dialogue heavy, but there are a lot of characters rattling around in the bar (and there are about to be a heap more). It's just fun to write folks talking, y'know?

Also WOW Sunspider I never expected to see that translated. I actually didn't even know how to un-fuck it myself and forgot what it said. Well done!!!