THE JARS THAT BLEED BEFORE THEY BREAK.

[glassjar]

Congrats! You've somehow stumbled upon the pocket dimension where five people with questionable morals (some more questionable than others) live and operate. Are you here on business? Do you have an appointment? Or are you here to see a friend? (Come on, don't make us laugh.)

Maybe you're here on accident due to some multiversal, magical, or otherwise supernatural nonsense? It's happened before, it was bound to happen again.

You can wander towards the house, see if anyone's home. Or you can explore the lush grounds, and maybe run across the wolfman groundskeeper who might try to usher you out towards the nearest portal, anyway. The world is your oyster, just try to be a good guest.

Comments

[ghostpranks]

[He arches a brow at her.]

Does what hurt?

[His grip around his drink, though, tightens incrementally.]

[nerine]

...

[She sets down her glass and points first to her head.]

Here.

[And then she puts a palm over where her heart would be.]

And here.

[ghostpranks]

[He watches both gestures closely. Pinches his brows together.

(Feels something ugly stir in his chest. Feels like a concoction of glass and oil.)

He clicks his tongue, harsh and dismissive.]

Came here for a quiet drink, not a therapy session.

[Sorry Monts. Your Social Link is not there yet.]

[nerine]

[Therapy for him, or is it therapy for herself? Is it even that?

She's seeking something elusive so that maybe she could make some sort of connection and not feel so untethered.

Or she might just really wonder how he's dealing with himself.]

That's all huh?

[But Monts, ever so airy and amiable, smiles at Jacob and even manages a quip.]

If you wanted quiet, you need to come in when Oren is behind the counter. Lord help you if it's Iona.

[ghostpranks]

[He doesn't like to ruminate with someone else. He does enough of that himself. Morgan always tells him that he overthinks, that he feels too much; that maybe his head and heart isn't where it needs to be for work like what they do. Jake's started to believe he's right, and not in the way where he wants to take a step back and leave. No, in a way where he needs to try to shear away the things that make him a bad fit. He can't be a bad fit.]

Yeah, I remember. She's got a mouth on her.

[Yes, we're moving on from discussion of hurts and other things he'd rather skate over.]

[nerine]

You know, when it's me, I can take what customers dish, but with her, try to not be an overt asshole?

[Oh, how she advises him so blithely.]

I give her crap too— the employee needs to keep the employer on her toes after all— but seriously, Oren will get testy if he thinks she's being disrespected.

[ghostpranks]

[Wow. His eyebrows fly up.]

Hey, if I'm being an asshole, you'd know it. [He'd break shit.] I just said she's loud and she's got an attitude.

Truth hurts. And even then, she can take it as a compliment.

[Plus she RUINED one of his jobs. Jake looked like an idiot in front of Lyra and Morgan. He didn't really need that, and he's still nursing that wound now that being back in the Midnight Grind is unearthing it again.]

[nerine]

Okay, you're being somewhat of an asshole. "Somewhat" is the word doing some heavy lifting here.

[Monts picks up her drink again, enjoying this weird exchange.]

Still, I'll be the first to rake her over the coals. She's exhausting at times but actually means well.

She did feel bad about breaking that urn by the way. The girl doesn't know her own strength sometimes.

[ghostpranks]

[She tells it like it is, huh?]

Being sorry about breaking it doesn’t mean much if she was planning on stealing it from us in the first place. One’s barely worse than the other.

Either way, it turned the whole thing into a bust.

[nerine]

It sounded so fun! I should have come along to see the swarm monster, but I was helping out my grandparents.

[Monts, don't look so gleeful.]

But hey, you're alive and well! Well enough to visit the cafe again after all this time.

[ghostpranks]

It was a pain in the ass.

[THIS NEEDS CLARIFICATION]

Me and your golem friend did most of the work. Morgan and Lyra just stood around and did jackshit. Believe me, it wasn’t fun.

[nerine]

I see, I see... Well, good work.

[Or so she says airily.]

Oren's good at that. Cleaning up messes I mean, so you could have worked with someone worse.

[ghostpranks]

Probably. [He has worked with worse people. Sometimes his own group feels like herding cats on the less-than-ideal days.] What's his deal anyway?

[Oren, he means. What's his story. The golem seems competent enough, but also like a stick in the mud.

(Pot, kettle.)]

[nerine]

Oren?

[Bemused, Monts sets her empty glass in the sink.]

He's just... Oren. I mean, you can ask me something more specific about him and I'll try to answer. I haven't known him as long as Iona though.

[ghostpranks]

[He's done with his own drink, having taken several vigorous sips up until this point. So he just leans back a little in his seat, arms crossed against his chest.]

Specific... Well, firstly, he's not human, right? A golem?

[A big fancy rock! He's not seen many in his time. But it's not a wild concept to Jake.]

[nerine]

Mm hm! Barely distinguishable from the real thing huh? Well, except the way he talks. That's easy to make up reasons though.

[Monts got used to it over time. He would feel strangely less of himself without his choppy sentences.]

He's the only sentient golem I know though. I got the impression there aren't any others.

[ghostpranks]

[A golem barely indistinguishable from a human. One that possesses sentience. Yeah, definitely unique.]

Something like him must have been pretty hard to put together, then.

[nerine]

[Monts shrugs again.]

I wouldn't know. What I do know is that Iona's grandma constructed him. She specializes in that among other things.

Oren's been through a lot so to speak so he's talented at a lot of things. Mostly domestic but I wouldn't want to get on his bad side.

[ghostpranks]

You don't just create a golem so he can stand around, I imagine.

[Of course Oren would be good at a lot of things. LIKE DISRUPTING HIS JOB.]

Iona mentioned her grandmother briefly. When you say she specializes in "that", what do you mean?

[nerine]

Well, making golems for one but from what I gathered her grandma likes working on a lot of crafty projects. Jewelry, ceramics and the like...

I've only met her a few times though so I haven't seen much of her or the things that she makes.

[Monts certainly didn't dislike Berna but she wasn't entirely comfortable around the powerful witch.]

She's similar to Iona but... Not. Hard to explain unless you meet her yourself.

[ghostpranks]

[Jake thinks that making a golem and making ceramics aren't even on the same level. Or the same universe. There's definitely a gap of information missing here.

Similar to Iona doesn't help much, either, because he doesn't really know Iona. Other than the fact that she's got a hell of a strong, gemstone arm.]

Meet her? Maybe. Oren popped in without warning, why not two uninvited people?

[don't look at that thread with thomas, jake]

[nerine]

[Monts laughs when she imagines Oren just standing there uninvited, wherever Jacob and the rest of the group hideout. He would do that wouldn't he?]

He's very stubborn, isn't he? Hope he didn't try to clean up your place.

[ghostpranks]

[It's basically what he did. Or so he was told by his brother.]

From what I heard, he was in a hurry to leave.

[nerine]

Oren? In a hurry? Perish the thought.

[It is weird how Oren had found them and hadn't told Iona anything. In a way, it didn't seem like him but Monts has worked it out that he's probably doing it for Iona's sake; a sort of "ends justify the means" sort of thing.]

I think it's just that he had a set schedule in his mind to get through when he visited you and he stuck to that. He's not one to waste his punches, if that makes any sense.

[ghostpranks]

So we were just a pit stop in the middle of his busy day.

[Figures.]

...Probably for the best.