The Odd and Slightly Dangerous Adventures of Life (1)

[llama]

More opinions didn't seem to be coming for the time being. The man lumbered off the stage, steadily heading past the sitting people and past you down the hall. All the people sitting didn't seem eager to get up and share their beliefs from now. You figure after one as radical as that, people just need to sit around and think about it for awhile. This was, after all, supposed to be an institution of open mindedness.

[1]

Trevor waits for a while, and decides he may as well give his two cents on the matter. In truth, the spreading of knowledge and contemplation of ideas was a form of prayer. He shuffles towards the place where the old man had spoken and squares his shoulders. Despite not being great at speaking in general, he didn't find public speaking any harder, really.

"Er. I would agree that voting is nice, but how does one decide the votes? Also, I think that some people are more qualified to make decisions-- I don't know anything about trade deals with the Green Kingdom, but I do know a lot about agriculture in Nanes, for example."

He coughs, and moves to sit down.

[llama]

Everyone looks up at you while you speak. All their faces are blank, a variety of physical features but overall the same expressions. As you move off the stage, no one goes to clap or agree with you. Just sitting there and thinking. Looking down the hall, you actually see the old man peeking his head out from the forum, furrowing his brow and giving you a scowl. You notice he mutters something under his breath, and then moves fully out of sight into the forum.

[1]

Trevor shrugs. He had been expecting more of an open dialogue, but saw this as acceptable as well. It seemed as though people really were interested in absorbing the thought, more than anything. Deciding to maybe come back and speak to the head priest later, he first wants to go and hit the books-- find the library, and some interesting reads.

[llama]

Walking past the benches of sitting people without so much as a mutter or cough from a single one of them, you head down the hallway to the library. Glancing over to the room in frame on the opposite side, you see a gathering of people talking, drinking, and debating as well as.. another stage?
Set on going to the library, you turn into the other door, opening up to a massive room with towering bookcases lining every wall. In the center of the room is a spinning sphere of magical essence with various words floating over it; perhaps a directory to the books within the room? As well as this object there are various round tables placed throughout the room where people can sit down and brew over whichever books they get. The library isn't as populated as the forum and much quieter; currently there is an elf and a human staring over another human's shoulder at a tome and a halfling staring at a stack of papers on his table.

[1]

Trevor approaches the halfling with the papers. The other three seem to be readers, maybe the halfling could direct him to some readings? He, couldn't help himself but see the goblin in the face of the halfling though. He'd heard of them, but never seen one before.

[llama]

The halfling looks up to you with wide eyes, and the two of you awkwardly stare at one another for a second. Five seconds. Fifteen seconds. Finally, he decides to break the ice, "Uhh.. hi.." He offers you an uncertain look, "I'm.. just kinda.. looking at these papers." Upon looking at them, they're various symbols. Almost to the point of hieroglyphics.

[1]

Trevor doesn't have any idea what to say. He maintains a neutral expression and just continues staring. This is so awkward.

[llama]

The boyish, chubby face of the halfling looks back at you. His second chin accentuates, his head tipping back a bit. This seems to be his thinking face; thoughts more intense on why the hell you're staring at him. His brown eyes flicker; his butt chin's few almost prepubescent hairs wave. You smell the turnip soup radiating from his open, inquisitive mouth. "D.. do you need something?"

[1]

Trevor realizes that this is just going to keep getting awkward. This clearly isn't a clerk, after all. "No." He turns around and goes to pick up a random book, so hopefully the halfling ignores him.

[llama]

Phew. Quick thinking, Trev, that almost turned awkward! We would never want something like that to happen!
The book yields the title "You're Fucked".. Xerces's library is supposed to yield all kinds of books of all kinds of knowledge, you suppose.

[1]

Trevor cracks it open and starts reading it-- might as well, really. He tries not to look up at the halfling. Don't look at the halfling.

[llama]

"'Twas a man who was here
and was not there
but also not anywhere
this man
was fucked.


He spent is days on the streets of Torts,
a beggar by trade,
and at nights,
spent it all on booze and hookers again,
the ladies of the night,
got fucked.


But there was a night
where he was met
by other people of the night
hooded goons
ones who made him fucked.

These people wore the night,
and the night wore them,
clubs by their side,
they fucked.

Thereafter twas there man was no more,
a pulp of his former self,
always watching from his dumpster,
so as not to fuck or be fucked again."


That was an... interesting read. People of the night? Some guy watching his remains from the afterlife? You flip through other pages of the book and you see that it consists of similar poems, one of people wearing abnormally black cloaks coming in and killing people, dooming their spirits to the earth. You would think an urban legend like that would be passed around sometime before you got to the city or while you're around the city; seems like a nice think to spice up the city.. and yet, no mention of it until this dusty tome right here.
You've been so immersed in this poem that you forget about the halfling but now you're registering that you forgot about him so you look over to him and make eye contact with him yet again. Damn.

[1]

Trevor grabs a small notebook of his and scribbles with a bit of magic, "Look into: Ladies/people of the night, Ghosts, murder legend." Deciding he would eventually have to face the halfling, he straightens himself out and approaches him.

Trevor coughs. "Uh, do you know where I might find the head priest around here?"

[llama]

You pocket the note, thinking for sure that later on the information will be useful.
The halfling blinks a bit, almost astonished that you finally gave him an actual question, "I.. uh.. believe he's in the forum."

[1]

Trevor nods to the halfling. "Thank you."

Straightening himself out, he walks away. Pausing about a few steps in, he turns back around and walks back to the halfling.

"So, uh, where is that?"

[llama]

The halfling, looking somewhat annoyed, gestures his head forward, right into the bustling hallway straight ahead. There seems to be a ridiculous amount of noise coming from there with all the activity you can see from here but no noise comes. Perhaps the library has an invisible wall of magic to keep out exterior sounds?

[1]

Trevor would need to save up money for some magical studies someday. He didn't even know that was possible-- it would have served him well trying to sleep with 7 brothers. He moves into the forum, looking for some official insignia.

[llama]

Walking out of the library, you immediately hear the discourse even from the hallway. The sound really amped up since you first went into the hallway. "- I just don't get why the city has to have these murder dumpsters. If anything, it encourages murder by giving criminals easy access to disposal! I get that Tort is ran by.. well.." Walking in, you see a man at a podium at the end of this circular room, atop a semicircle stage currently with two podiums. The man currently speaking is a proud looking elf, and he seems to be struggling not to say something derogatory towards whomever is the majority population of this city, "the people in charge!" This gets the receiving end of a whole lot of disproving looks, including the woman at the other podium, a woman with rather childish, plump facial features. She squints one eye and turns her head slightly, as if swirling over what the man just said, before replying, "So.. these people in charge.. how can you say they are the ones responsible for these disposal units when you can't even name who they are?"

[1]

Trevor looked over at the debates a little. What the hell are murder dumpsters? Anyways, he kept looking around for some sort of official insignia. He could maybe see the debates later, but he'd have to find out a little more about the city first, evidently.

[llama]

You hear more murmur going on and off about the whole thing but heed little attention. Soon enough in the swathe of people in the room you see an immensely fat orc surrounding by a good few people looking up at him in awe. As you near, you hear his conversation more clearly, "I swear, there has been some really had activities going on in those warehouses. I know it's nothing good, I can assure you of that, but it still leaves one to wonder.."

[1]

Trevor attempts to navigate the room and approach the Orc. He's usually used to people parting before him because of his intimidating stature, but it seems he isn't so special anymore in this city. He does make eye contact with the Orc, though.

Trevor knows that it was usually not much use dancing around subjects when it comes to Xerces-- in his (admittedly limited) experience, they tended to be highly direct people.

"Err, Excuse me, I can't help but have overheard something about warehouses, and trouble. I, uh, happen to be in the business of uh... making something good out of nothing good." Trevor smiles.

"Could I know some more?"

[llama]

You're starting to realize more and more that there's nothing special about a large man in an even larger swathe of people. Hopefully this doesn't chip away at your self confidence too much. 
Everyone's eyes within the circle turn to you, most with an inquisitive raised eyebrow on their faces.. the need to know. Seemed to be a common trait among people of Xerces. the orc, adjusting his robe a bit, prepares himself, "Ah, yes. In one of the more.. crime oriented regions of Tort there are some strange dealings rumored to be going on in some of the warehouses. Emptying of murder dumpsters by people other than the government's program.. dismembered remains found during day in the warehouses.. strange markings upon the walls. People have urged the city watch to go and investigate it themselves, but they're either too scared, stupid, or paid off to do anything about it."

[1]

Trevor stares at the man, face blank, blanching a little as he made connections. Murder dumpsters again-- he mentioned emptying them, and that they had to do with a government program. Was the murder rate so high that they had a dumpster for bodies? How bad could a place possibly be to warrant something like that? He grew a lot more sympathetic towards the cause of that elf. He'd heard of killings like that in cities, but the only murder that happened in his village was when Louis killed Samuel, and he was a rapist anyways. He'd have to think more about this, and at the very least try and figure things out. Worst, it seems like people are stealing the body parts.

"I-I see. Thank you... could you, perhaps, direct me to a crime-infested region of the sort?"

[llama]

"Well, here in Tort, all of the city is infested with crime." A few chuckles are had at this, "As for the place where these.. crimes originated, I can provide directions." He gives you rather clear directions to go, having to go through the market again to and then a different pathway to the warehouse district. Should be simple enough.