Thomas Lou's Story

In the doors a young man entered he looked to be around 11 or 12 but that was just looks. Being a Pandorian was different and he defiantly got treated like a child on more than one occasion. He was excited to check out this casino though, he had always wanted to try his hands on a slot machine.

He knew he had a few hours to kill before he had to return to the Taskforce HQ, no drinking but he hated to drink anyways it gave him a sour stomach. He strolled across the room and past Robert as he walked by. He recognized the owner from the promo's for the casino.

Smiling he waded through the crowd as he looked for the gambling area. He debated going straight there but opted for the bar to grab a soda first.

"Soda Please." He shouted to a random bartender as he scoped out the crowd.

Alice walked into the bar with a big smile, her short brown wavy hair bounced neatly. She looked around this half empty bar and found a perfect table to sit down on, luckily she brought a book with her to read. Alice sat down and opened her book, she was reading the great expectations by Charles Dickens, it was one of her all time favourite books to read.

After a few pages in she put her book away and began to walk up towards the bar and noticed a kid she thought was behind the bar. Alice was at the bar at first she stared at the selection of beverages before deciding that she wanted some cherry brandy "I know this is such a unusual request but do you perhaps serve Cherry Brandy here?" She asked the boy behind the counter "if not then I am happy with red wine." She stood there smiling politely.

Jeremy soon got back to his duties. First, he went towards the boy and the woman who both went to the bar. He was already in a good mood, so the smile was genuine. it usually as anyways, but this one was bigger. "Hello, and welcome to the Tarosi Casino, Pub, and Bar. We also have a hotel here too, but adding that would have been too lengthy. Anyways, this is our Bartender, Maarat".

Maarat appeared to be a child, but in fact he was a Pandorian, and Maarat was a common Pandorian name. Pandorians just appeared like human children. Their unofficial nickname was "Space hobbits", though quite a few found that offensive. "We have several Casino games available to play too, including Quasar, Texas Holdem, Slots, Roulette, and Batcha, as well as many others. If you need anything, feel free to ask me or any of the attendants".

As he said this, the Bar tender came and served both of them with the drinks of their choice.

Tom listened to the boy with a smile before he took his drink and wander back into the crowd in hopes of finding the slot machine. He knew his time was limited but he hoped that would keep him from spending his entire check on the slots as well. Plus his enhanced senses made the noise here slightly frustraiting though he tried to concentrate on droning it out.

((Gtg for a bit sorry just assume he is spending money on slots XD.))

Alice smiled and replied "Thank you very much, hello Maarat" she gave a small nod to him "Bet a lot of people think you are a child?" She smiled at him and then turned to the other guy "Hello, is it possible that I can rent a room for the night?" She asked him as she needed somewhere to stay before setting off and exploring this area.

Felicity pocketed the business card with a bright grin toward the departing Robert, and waved cheerfully,"Have a good trip, then."

She let the man go, of course, and even let her aura die down for now, making it almost seem to those affected, that she had completely vanished. She turned to face the bar and sip her wine as she plotted out her next course of action. While it had been a nice exercise to string that man along, she wasn't entirely sure that he was worth the trouble. After all, if she were to attempt to use him, it would force her to be stationary. Her eyes slid over to Jeremy as he now assumed the role of the host, seeming just as charismatic as his father had bragged he was.

She made a note of the younger-looking male that passed her on the way to the bar, raising an eyebrow at the fact they had allowed another child into the casino. Heck, there was one even serving drinks. Maybe children in the workforce was more common than she thought? Tom slipped back into the crowd and out of Felicity's range of attention, as her gaze had already moved on to the young woman that spoke with Jeremy. She seemed honest enough, and quite cheerful, but of little interest to the sylph.

Despite the fact that Alice wasn't all that interesting to Felicity, the sylph moved to sit next to the other woman, waiting until there was a break in the conversation between the two. Once she had a chance, she offered her hand and a warm smile to the other woman, while she gave off an aura of warm friendliness,"Hey there, I'm Felicity. Couldn't help but overhear that you might be staying a few nights. See, I'm traveling alone, and I'd feel a lot better if I had another girl to hang out with. That is, if you don't mind?"

Much like the aura of attraction she gave off earlier, the sunny air of friendliness was a very subtle psionic working. Even powerful telepaths were likely to overlook it, due to how minor an effect it was. Along with this, Felicity smiled, made eye contact, and generally behaved the same way an honest person would. It helped that she was even somewhat truthful in wanting to have another woman to hang around, though her reason was less innocent.

As the newly opened establishment carried on with its grand opening ceremony, cosmic energies began to swirl and converge upon a single point in the middle of the building. Then with a brilliant flash of light and color a portal opened silently, taking the form of a Spiral Galaxy. Out of it walked two humanoid beings who looked... rather normal.

The older of the two stood at a few inches over six feet tall, and wore a very nice black suit with matching shoes, tie, and a white dress shirt to go along with it, making him quite possibly the best dressed there. On the surface, above the breast pocket, a Spiral Galaxy was beautifully embroidered and it seemed to glow dimly. The man's skin was lightly tanned and was flawless. His dark blue, almost purple, eyes scanned the room, and his dark blue hair was brushed neatly to the side.

The second figure was shorter than the first, being only five foot eleven inches tall. Her long flowing golden hair reached to her mid back, and almost seemed to glow. Her eyes were a lighter shade of yellow, and also seemed to glow. Her skin was like the man she appeared with: Lightly tanned with a flawless perfection to it. She wore a long, flowing white dress that had golden-yellow designs on it that swirled to form clocks, hourglasses, and other instruments for telling time. Unlike her companion, who wore shoes, she wore a simple pair of sandals that looked as if they had been taken right out of a painting. Around her wrist was a watch that complemented her beauty with its somewhat dull yet still shining silver color.

"Spiral," the female started as the portal closed behind the two. "Remind your older sister why we're here, will you?" she asked her blue haired companion, who she identified as her younger brother.

"Well, Dori," Spiral said, looking at her gently. "I thought that we needed to take a break from running the universe, if only for a few hours. Being a deity is very stressful you know." he said with a playfully lazy tone.

"Don't take that tone with me here. I swear it's like sometimes you forget that I'm two hundred human years older than you." she said, annoyed.

"Ah, but physically, we don't look like we're however old we are." the blue haired man spoke calmly, and with a smile. "And besides, if I had known that you were going to try and throw a fit for me bringing you somewhere relaxing I would have brought Brian instead." he added.

His gorgeous sister rolled her eyes in disgust. "Enjoy yourself, you fool." she said, reaching up and flicking his forehead before walking off to the bar, where she ordered herself a simple glass of water.

Spiral smirked and let out an amused huff as his sister skulked off to the bar. He let out a small breath. "This is quite a nice place. Not as structurally sound as Gambit's...but...it'll do." he muttered to himself.

The door creaked open once more and the figure opening it had to lower his head to enter. The figure was seven foot tall, his left arm was covered in greek letters and his hair was shaved into a small mohawk which accentuated his rough beard and broken nose quite well.

If it wasn't the large and worn coat dragging across the floor. The gibborim gave the denizens of the newly opened bar a curious gaze, they were talking about the universe like they owned the place, like they were like the one, true god themselves. Heresy, but they looked like children so he would let it pass. Adapt or be outcast, right?

Weeper almost stomped to the bar and took a seat next to Felicity and Alice. The giant had to move slightly to the side and leaned his elbows on the counter. Something nagged him in the back of his head that Felicity would break a promise in the promised land and Alice was a little too plain-looking.


"Two wine bottles. Got anything to anything to go with it?." Weeper asked Jeremy, he looked like a child in the know.

Jeremy looked towards Weeper. "Oh yes. We have a wide variety. My name is Jeremy Tarosi. Maarat, how about two bottles of the Storibian Red?"

"Alright".

"Anyways, you can look at the menu here..." he said, pointing him to a touch screen interface that allowed people to browse all sorts of meals, place orders, make payments, and search or specific things, as well as letting you have the option to see all ingrediants used. "We have some really good steaks. There are also these things called "Tahnas", they are like a pastry. It's an original Pandorian recipe. One of my favorites. Oh, that's actually one of the filters you can access with the search. My favorites, my father's favorites. Oh, if you speak into that little microphone while holding that button, it's all voice command, but you have to speak into it closely. We didn't want the backround conversations to interfere".

Maarat brought back two bottles. "If you need or want anything else, just let me or Maarat know".

With that, Jeremy turned his attention towards the two others who seemed to portal in. As he approached them, he helped four other patrons along the way before reaching them. He was fast, efficient, and smart. "Thank you for coming. My name is Jeremy Tarosi. Would you like anything specific? Room? Game list? Entertainment listings here for tonight? Drinks? Food? All you need to do is ask".

Tom returned to the bar a few hundred bucks richer after playing a lucky hand on the slot machine. Well he would call it a lucky hand but enhanced hearing did help a bit. Tossing his winnings on the counter he said. "Drinks on me!" It was a bit odd to see this young looking man offering free drinks but he was in a good mood and plus giving the cash back to the establishment made him feel like less of a cheapskate.

"Could I get a coke and this should cover the people here's drinks one only though eh I'm not made of money." He said in a bit softer voice. He sipped his coke and glanced around looking for someone to strike up a conversation with.

Dori looked at the man who approached her, and nodded. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Jeremy. I'd like to see the entertainment listings for tonight." she said in a well mannered, caring tone. "And do make it quick before my brother over there makes one out of thin air." she added with a small wink and glance towards Spiral, who was amusing himself by mixing various drinks while he had them float in the air in front of them.

If asked what he was planning on making, he would reply that he simply didn't know and wanted to see if he could surprise himself. Though, he would ultimately fail in surprising himself, being the God of Space itself, it makes it difficult to be surprised by anything. He walked over to his sister and sat by her at the bar, holding his strange concoction in his hand.

Dori groaned and looked at the drink. "Please tell me you're not planning on getting drunk tonight?" she said, though it wasn't really a question.

"Who, me? No. It'll take a lot more than...whatever's in this to get me drunk." Spiral replied, taking a sip of it before shrugging.

"It'll take only ten of those to get you drunk." Dori said, not even guessing. "I suggest drinking only five." she added.

"Relax, dear sister. I've got it under control." Spiral responded.

Then down the stairs came someone claiming to want to pay for everything. Spiral raised his eyebrows. "Well, that saves me the tiresome thing where I make real things appear from nothing." he said.

Dori scoffed. "Please, making something as simple as money was never tiring for you. Nor was it for Brian." she said with a roll of her gorgeous yellow eyes.

"You just love to ruin my fun, don't you, sister?"

"Yep."

"Well, we have a famous singer booked, apparently she is one of the best. We also have someone who juggles flaming knives. Later tonight, we will be featuring some singers from this place called Tatoine. Oh, we will also having some Cinima playing in the Cinima Room. Tickets can be bought at the counter, or at the doors outside the rooms. If you need anything else, let me, our bartender Maarat, or any of the attendants know".

He turned his attention towards a few other patrons, before making his way to Tom.

"Alright. Thank you sir. Also, would you like to open a tab here?"

Maarat started serving up another coke for Tom. The entire place seemed efficient, friendly, and nice.

Felicity quickly lost interest in Alice, and turned her attention away to the rest of the room again. It seemed that there was quite the gathering, with a massive man right next to her, and a pair that just appeared in the center of the room. She only glanced at some girl with an owl. There was a young man again, who apparently saw fit to pay for everyone's drinks, and seemed just as interesting as everyone else. Honestly, the good mood the young guy was in, was probably a good opportunity to gather information.

The blonde broke away from the bar to move over to sit next to Tom, offering a warm smile, and an aura of attraction again,"Hey there. Guess you got lucky on the slots. Thank you for the free drink, maybe I could do something nice for you in return?" She paused for a moment, just long enough to make it unclear of what exactly she meant,"I'm visiting the area, on business, and I wondered if you were familiar with the town."

As she spoke she raised her shoulders slightly and tucked in her chin, playing up a bashfulness, as if she was perfectly naive and clueless. Her skin glittered lightly, and her eyes sparkled, every bit of her seeming to be made of some sort of precious metal in its soft glow. Even without her passive aura, she was fairly attractive by human standards.

Jeremy tried to get the bird to leave the man alone, while at the same time greeting a new patron who entered, Isis. "Welcome to the 'Tarosi Casino, Pub, and Bar', my name is Jeremy Tarosi. We have a variety of entertainment set up, both right now and tonight. We also have exciting games, a wide variety of drinks and food, and we still have some open rooms, though I am told they are filling fast. If you need anything, just let me, or any of our staff know".

He then went over, congratulated Thomas on his winnings, then made his way over to the girl and hew owl again to resolve this issue with the book.

Char walked in calmly and jumped up to a seat at the bar, looking around, he was unsure why he chose to come to this place. He wasn't in need of food or drink, and he didn't have any physical currency upon him. He just sat calmly at the bar stool looking around at the people. He assumed that the man in charge of the place was currently busy, so he just sat at the stool quietly.

Brian looked up at Jeremy "I'm fine, thank you. It's nice to meet -" He suddenly tossed his book behind him, and it vanished in mid air as Shakespeare tried to take his book from him.

"Why did you have to go and do that? You ruined my drawing." he pouted, crossing his arms while looking at the owl before him.

Dori then turned and watched the situation, walking over to Tawny. "I see your owl has taken to meeting my nephew, Brian. Who was probably sketching you out of boredom." she said with a polite tone. "Oh, where are my manners? I am Dori Clockwork. Goddess of Time." she said with a bow. "And Brian is my nephew, the son of the God of Space." she said. She gestured for Brian to come closer, and he was suddenly next to them, standing within arms reach as if he had just teleported.

The young blue haired man looked at Tawny and gave her a bow. "Brian James, son of the God of Space. At your service." he said. Instead of shaking her hand like a normal human being (Which he wasn't even Human), he would gently clasp her hand in his and bring it to his lips, kissing the top of her hand gently.

After the introductions, Brian looked Tawny in the eye and would proceed to ask "Does your owl not like being drawn?" in a polite tone.

Thomas entered the casino once again as but he immediately knew something was wrong the place looked like a battle field as innocents scattered and ran for cover. What the hell is this crap? He thought as he threw up a plasma shield infront of himself to deflect any stray fire.

He could have jumped into the fray but he decided to wait and as part of the Pandorian Military he knew he had a duty to protect the Alliances Citizens. But the combat part seemed to be covered plus he wanted to try and figure out what exactly was going on. He then realized that most of the shooting was coming from the guards as they seemed to surround bow.

He debating on intervening but once again decided to remain non-combative and merely made a larger shield extending the wall around a small area to provide cover for anyone that wished to avoid the fighting.

Lev, who did not wish to avoid the fighting but wanted to be on the right side if he got froggy, eyed up the newcomer. Military? Cop? Lensman? Hard to tell which, but one of those for sure.

"Hey." He said it casually, like talking about...say, mufflers, or the menu at AstroBurger. "This kinda thing--" he indicated the melee with a finger, making a mixing/swizzling motion "--happen often around here?"

Char jumped from his stool when the fighting broke out, the claws becoming unsheathed. His orange eye becoming a red targeting system and his blue eye fading into a purple hue. He was about to jump into the fray, when he noticed how much was really going on. This may not be the best idea with all the fire that could hit him directly. Then he sheathed his claws but his eyes kept with the red targeting system and purple hue. He simply sat at the bar stool and watched the fighting to see if he could learn a thing or too.

((Note: This is Char the android cat, not Char Ge'kyrayc))

Thomas turned to Lev and then looked at all the shooting. He had to shout a bit so he could be heard over the gunfire. "Not that I know of this place just opened!" He said, "I sure hope not though..." He added with a slightly quieter tone. He kept his blue plasma wall up as he glanced around looking for the staff.

He spotted the kid who had been working the counter and seemed to be leading an attack on the thing. He was only suppose to be on here on midtransfer leave so he wasn't even sure who in the military he could contact but it seemed they probably already would have been given the situation. He debated on attacking once more but again he decided it would be best to say back and let the others handle it Plus if things got really bad at least he would have energy in reserve to mount an attack on what ever the thing was destroying the Casino.

It was two factors that would lead to Bo's salvation here, the first being the mist covering her exact position from most people and the second being an old trick of her fathers. See, cat ears (and other features) were kind of noticeable, even when wrapped in fabric. So to get around this her father had always worn a rounded helmet to give a more human-shaped skull under the mask. And what was better than that, he had long since learned he held a vulnerability to psychic magics and enchanted it with wards against such attacks. So naturally when he taught Bo to be an assassin he gave her all of his tools. Bo would never be aware that a psychic assault was launched at her, too busy locked into the heat of battle as she now turned into mist to let her own melted chain fall for her body, only to miss and probably fall on the unfortunate guard she had engaged in melee range or the floor, only to reform a moment later drawing a scroll from her belt.

The scroll would flap open to reveal symbols, characters and runes, which would have a hand placed to it to call forth three weapons, or five items in total. One flashbang grenade, two similarly functioning pellets and a two electronically based exploding ninja stars. More equipment from her father, who she would absolutely refuse to thank if she made it out of this. She would scoop those items into her arm, held against her chest as a deft flick of her free hand whipped her chain back towards her own body to wrap around her arm. She would have to pick up her melted metal in a minute, but for now she dipped low, flipping the pin off of her flash bang and laying on top of it. For four seconds she would be happy to lie there, pressed flat to the ground with only a hump in her back to show she was on something, and on the fifth she would turn into mist to let the grenade explode. The results would be violent to anyone caught close; blindness, deafness and severe disorientation and loss of balance. She was counting on her own body to hide it until it was too late.

As for the guards, well they would be firing into a fog; low vision with Bo already at melee range to one guard so that would probably incur a crossfire, which with her flowing in and out of mist form would probably result in more cases of friendly fire than shots on target, especially with the forcefield walls locking all that pulse-power inside. Force had to go somewhere.

Hmm. Well enough, he thought to himself.

"Well enough." Lev wasn't as good at the fast-draw as he was at looking good doing it, so he certainly made a dashing figure when he skinned his particle cascader, however slowly. 'Scader in hand, he nodded to the military man. "I'm game for keeping the new wallpaper up; how 'bout you?"

[OOC: I, the player, have no idea what's going on. Is there a monster or something trying to tear up the casino? I looked back through old posts but can't parse it out. Whatever it is, Lev's ready to get fighty on it.]

Maybe he was just over-eager. With two seconds gone and no reply from the military fellow, Lev hopped up onto a bar stool and surveyed the situation:

1. Big red mandroid shooting at crowd and demanding payment: Probably real bad news.
2. Chick behind the counter: Instigator. Maybe.
3. Little kid doing a Merlin impression: Possibly also an aggressor, but could also be an innocent. Hard to tell.
4. Nice new casino: Getting messed up. Most likely not desirable.
5. Dashing, handsome space adventurer with nerves of freon: Him.

That was too many maybes. He'd spent too much of his life weighing out maybes, staying his hand and taking no risks; it was time to be a man of adventure, and adventure takes action.

Lev takes action. Take action, Lev.

He struck a badass pose -quite as an aftereffect, really- and squeezed off a trio of particle blasts in the direction of the red guy. That armor looked heavy, and he had his 'scader dialed low -- his fancy shooting may do no more than turn the kill-bot's attention to him.

But, hey -- at least he was doing something...

The Casino itself was actually still running, surely nothing to do with the increased music and the fact even more security arrived. Also, the factors that made Bo's helmet protective would ONLY protect her mind. Telekinesis and telekinetic attacks would affect the rest of her body, maybe a bit reduced but not ineffective. Additionally, the Forcefields were more like sponges, not rubber. The force would be absorbed instead of being bounced off.

Therefore, when Bo released this gas, Jeremy used all his might to force the gas into itself, and into Bo. Therefore, no one but her would be affected.

Also, as a spot of luck, no real damage had been done. Maybe an elevator wasn't completely operational at the moment, but tye Casino itself was still in top shape.

Jeremy would continue to use his Telekinesis to force anything Bo threw back at her.

Also, seeing as how she seemed to make no effort to avoid it, the liquid metal Jeremy threw at her before hit her spot on.

(Mentioned the liquid metal in previous post, and I didn't see any indication you tried to dodge it)

As the explosion went off Tom and those behind his plasma shield were shielded from the immediate scrap metal but not expecting it the shield dropped almost moments later and tom was knocked across the room. Everything went black for a moment.

It was the smell of smoke and the sound of the fire alarms that awoke Tom. Normally most would still be out or at least on the ground trying to figure out what was going on but this is where Tom's training kicked in. He dragged himself up onto a knee as he looked around his ears were ringing but he surveyed the situation. BombHe thought instantly.

He brought up two plasma balls as he looked around for any sign of hostile movement. Something had triggered no longer was he looking to stay out of the fray choosing moral values over violence. No it was clear something was triggered deep down something cold and calculating resulting from his extensive training.

Mentally Accessing his comm he contacted military command. "Code black at the Tarosi, Code Black. I cannot ID a suspect." Tom said as his eyes still scanning through the smoke looking for movement from survivors or attackers.