[zapdragon555]

(I'll bring in Tavros now~)

Tavros sat by an open window, watching the crowds go by the little shop he was in. After he found himself on this strange planet, with his wheelchair in pieces and he unable to move, a kindly old baker who worked in Harvest Town found him and took pity on the boy. He'd been working for the man ever since, trying to help him in whatever way he could, whether it was advertising the shop, delivering bread and pastries, or taking orders. The baker never made Tavros do any strenuous work; how could he, after all? He was paralyzed from the waist down. Lucky for him, the baker owned a replacement wheelchair-- a bit more futuristic looking than his old one, and probably there in case the baker ever needed it for himself-- and was kind enough to let Tavros use it.

The sound of a yelp caught his attention, and his eyes widened as the sound of the cry registered in his mind. "T-terezi?" Tavros murmured, trying to lean out the window to get a better look. He caught sight of a purple cape and blue scarf in between the masses of people. "Eridan?" Tavros figured he was just seeing things, but that didn't stop him from wheeling over to the door and pulling it open. A bell tinkled above him, as it always did when the door was opened. He jumped slightly, surprised by the sound, then sped out the door towards his friends.

"Tavros? Where are you going, m'boy?"

The wheelchair-confined troll jolted to a stop as the baker called him. "Uh, I was just, uh... I-I think I saw someone I know. M-may I go see?" The old baker looked at him for several seconds, then nodded with a smile. Tavros grinned. "Thank you, sir," he said, pivoting around and wheeling down to the street. "Terezi, Eridan!" he called as loudly as he could, which wasn't a very impressive volume. "Is that you?"

(Hope I'm allowed to have that short backstory thing about the baker. xD
I wasn't sure how else to introduce Tavros.)

[Freezair]

"They're everywhere!" Cora coughed. She stared  at the... family? ...reunion with a bemused, swirl-faced expression. "OK, seriously, where DO all you guys come from? Because, seriously. You guys are the only ones I've seen so far who have met ANYONE here you know. Seriously, why did you guys luck out? Do you do something behind the scenes we don't know about?"

A bolt of justification inspiration hit her. "...Because! If I'm in charge here--sorta--I need to know anything that could potentially influence our team structure! If it could help our jeopardize our mission..."

But Double H, who'd noticed the bakery first, pointed. "Oh! Look! A bakery! Food!" He brandished his large purple crystal. He eyed the sphere Rufus was toying with, too. "If that's something you're willing to barter with, I think we should go inside. An army runs on its stomach! Carlson and Peeters, page 53, chapter: Field Preparations!"

[auntslappy282]

((Go ahead and post Talcen. MoralChaos hasn't been on in over a month, and if she comes back and still wasn't to rp, she can. So yeah. Go ahead.))

[Kylo]

Rufus looked up at Double H and nodded slowly. "I can't trade this, at least not yet. It's very importantly to me." He wondered why the man seemed to suddenly be a bit less wary of him and watched the seemingly family reunion of...well whatever those people were, listlessly. Suddenly he found himself thinking about his employees, though one in particular. If he was here then at least Rufus wouldn't be alone.  "So it appears that the people here are friendly and in good shape. Things appear to be running smoothly on the surface. Maybe a goverment is not needed afterall..." he said, mostly to himself.

[auntslappy282]

"Oh not the cripple..," Eridan muttered before Tavros was in ear shot. "Tavy~ What are you doing here and how did you get here?" She said with a laugh. She walked over to him and gave him a tight hug, lifting him slightly off of his wheel chair. "Oh, we're not a family. We're just from the same planet before we destroyed it. I'd wager we have a better chance of gettin' here together because we went through a lot of time travel stuff during our adventurin' days. And there's 12 of us," Eridan said, attempting to explain. The thought of having Tavros as a sibling was... Frightening to say the least.

Terezi nodded at Eridan's explanation, and then she saw the bakery. Her stomach growled slightly and then she laughed at Double H's excitement. "Yeah! lets go get some bakery food!" She said with a happy smile, starting to head towards the bakery. Eridan sighed and followed along.

((My muse was dead. Oops. XD;;))

[zapdragon555]

Tavros winced as Terezi hugged him tightly, then returned the hug as best he could in that position. He exhaled deeply when she let him back down. "Y-yeah, there's been lots of, uh, time shenanigans," he said, shrugging. "Or maybe we're just, uh, lucky."

Clive, finally catching up to the group through the crowd, raised an eyebrow. Another one? "Lucky is right," he chuckled. He wished he knew someone here. The Professor, Dimitri, even that little annoying Triton boy would be good company. He sighed inwardly and turned his attention toward Terezi. "A bakery!" he exclaimed, stomach growling as if on cue.

"Oh, yeah," Tavros said, grinning. "I work here now. The baker is, uh, really nice to me, and--"

"What's all this ruckus out here?" An old man suddenly appeared in the doorway, bushy mustache and eyebrows concealing much of his features. He immediately noticed Terezi and Eridan walking towards the bakery. "Oh! You look like Tavros!" he gasped.

"Uh, yeah, these are my friends," Tavros said, wheeling up after the other trolls. He glanced behind him at the people who seemed to know Terezi and Eridan as well. "A-and they are, too." He smiled genuinely and turned back to the baker. "I'm sure they're, uh, pretty hungry," Tavros said with a hopeful look on his face. "C-could we give them some bread?"

The baker's eyes grew wide at the size of the group he had to feed. "Do they have any money?"

"Unfortunately, no," Clive said, casting his eyes downward. He brightened suddenly as he remembered Terezi's whole 'poor blind girl' trick. "Wait! Terezi, did you manage to get any money?"

The bakers eyes softened-- though it didn't show, as his bushy gray eyebrows hid it-- and a smile crossed his face. "No matter," he said, stepping out of the doorway. "Please, come in. We have plenty of bread, anyhow."

Clive started. He was just going to give them bread? The people in this town are definitely more pleasant than those in the city, he thought. The blue-clad boy nodded respectfully toward the baker. "Thank you very much, sir," he murmured, walking into the cozy little shop. Tavros smiled at his 'mentor' in thanks, and followed Clive inside, motioning to the rest of the group to follow.

[Freezair]

"Waitaminute--destroyed?! You destroyed a planet? What kind of people are you?! I! Hey! Hey! Come back here!" Cora waved her hands in the air. Unfortunately, it looked like everyone was already too distracted by the promise of bread and real food. Blast. That little tidbit about destroying planets was spoken pretty casually and slipped in on the side, but it had not escaped her notice. That was a very suspicious thing to say, after all. And she did not want characters of questionable moral integrity on her team! ...OK, well, maybe not all characters, but she at least wanted some backstory if apocalypses were involved. That was the deaths of a couple billion people, right there, and if someone could shrug that off, well, Cora wasn't so keen on keeping them around.

Double H, on the other hand, was more concerned with that Rufus fellow. Rufus had given him one of those looks--the "why-are-you-suddenly-being-nice-to-me" look. Double H thought the man greatly overestimated his charm. Double H held no particular love for him, nor did he trust him. But the man with the gun had yet to do anything outwardly dangerous. And Double H would not act uncivilly towards a person who wasn't actively engaged in hurting others... especially if his attitude might set them off.

He followed the others into the bakery, leaving Cora to protest at nothing until she begrudgingly followed the others inside. Graciously, he accepted some bread. "I don't have any money that you would accept, sir, but would this crystal be of any value to you?" He pulled the purple, shimmering star-shaped jewel from his subspace storage bag and presented it to the baker.

"And if you won't accept it for the bread... please, take it in exchange for information." He bit down into the bread he was offered. Warm and homemade! It was miles above the synthetic rations he was used to eating on the road. "Real" food just spoiled too quickly. "You see, we're... Well, we need to know a bit more about the 'situation' here, if you catch my drift. There's a certain.... 'hostility,' for lack of a better word, around this general area. What's been happening around here recently?"

[auntslappy282]

((48 hours. ^^))

Terezi nodded at Clives question and ignored Cora's. She giggled slightly to herself as Cora talked about destroying a planet. It's not like it was there fault. It was there destiny. She laughed and followed happily into the bakery. She went through her pockets and dropped a rather large amount of cash on the counter. She smiled and said, "I hope this'll work sir," She said with a smile. She sat down and began to eat the bread. She frowned. "Needs more color," She muttered.

Eridan sighed and sat down next to Cora and began to eat his bread. He just wanted to hear what the baker had to say. Information? He was curious to say the least. "Oh, and Cora, our planet sucked and it was out destiny to destroy it just like Earth," He said with a slight smile. He stretched and waited for the baker.

((Zappy, feel free to PM me if you need help on that. ^^))

[zapdragon555]

(Well this post got bigger than I intended. xD)

The baker raised an eyebrow at the glittering purple gem Double H presented to him. "Well, it certainly is a pretty thing, but I'm not sure my bread is worth something like that, no matter what people might tell ya." He chuckled and winked. "You better hang on to it, son." It was then when Terezi dropped her large sum of money on the counter. "Well, that's more than enough, ma'am!" the baker exclaimed, a warm smile spreading across his face. "And definitely worth both the bread and whatever information I can give." The baker pulled a chair from behind him and settled down in it.

"Now. About this 'hostility' business..." he began, leaning back in the chair and staring at the ceiling. "Oh, where do I begin...?"

"Uhh, m-maybe tell them about the, uh, Capitol?" Tavros interrupted, fiddling with the collar on his jacket.

"Ah yes, capital idea, Nitram," the baker laughed. "Distant Capitol. I don't know if you've been there, but surely you've heard of it," he said to the group. "It's huge, after all, even though it's incredibly... ah..."

"Distant?" Tavros suggested.

"Well, yes. Literally and figuratively. The Capitol is supposed to be our center of government, but it does little to govern us. The people in Manifold, they--"

"They seem distant, uh, from each other as well," the troll butted in again. The baker shot him an annoyed glance, and Tavros immediately silenced himself. He grabbed a small piece of bread and nibbled on it to give his mouth something to do.

"Yes... many people believe if we had a more organized government, maybe have some better laws and regulations, we'll be a more united people. It's hard for some people to trust their neighbors when nothin' is illegal, hm?" The baker leaned forward in his chair and locked his gaze on the group before him and dropped his voice to a whisper. "Between you and me, the man-in-charge of this here land ain't exactly the best leader. He sits up in that tower all day, barely governing even the city that surrounds the Capitol building. We almost never hear anything from that place..." He looked at Tavros expectantly.

"Uhh, and also-- this is what I've, uhm, heard from some people around town-- the people who live in the city live very comfortably, e-even though they, uh, don't work as hard as people in the t-town do," Tavros murmured. "A-and part of the towns resources, uh, have to go to the Capitol..." He trailed off and looked back to the baker, silently saying that that was all he knew.

"I suspect..." the baker began, choosing his words carefully. "...that Distant Capitol may be using Harvest Town's resources to give to those who live in the city." He paused. "But of course that's just me talkin'. All that conspiracy theory stuff, y'know," he added with a chuckle to lighten the mood. "Oh, and another thing. I'd steer clear of the Transparent Forest and Illusion Docks. Odd stuff's known to happen there..." He fell silent, as if mulling over his own thoughts, an elbow propped up on his knee as he drummed his fingers on his chin.

"I'm afraid that's all I can tell you," the old man said after a few seconds of silence. "Oh, by the way, the name's Edward Pane. Most folks around here call me Mr. Eddie, though."

(Hope I didn't god mod too much on the plot. x3;;)

[auntslappy282]

((Hehe, you did perfectly fine. ^^))

[Freezair]

((OOC: It's worth noting that, under normal circumstances, Cora would now be kicking all of the trolls out of the group, because she has a bit of a... thing when it comes to planetary-scale destruction. Her villain nearly turned Earth into a warped, distorted, and unlivable mess, y'see. But since I think you want the parties to stick together? XD Especially since they're so small now.))

Double H smiled kindly at the baker. "I think you overestimate this stone's value. Where I'm from, you would need ten of these--at least!--to buy a loaf of bread like that. But if you believe the people of this world will value them more, then I will abide by your advice. Thank you, kind sir."

Cora looked fumingly at the trolls. How could they be so casual about something like killing millions of people? She wanted to jump at them and strangle them! No--she wanted to Banish them! No--but it seemed like no one noticed her anger, especially not them. They seemed to think it was something funny. And if no one in this group cared to listen to her about that, what could she do?

Thankfully, the baker himself started speaking up, and he began to explain things.

As it often did, Cora's impulsive mind swung in another direction entirely. "I knew that guy was up to no good! ...I think we met him," Cora explained to the baker. "He wanted us to go around converting people to accepting him as their leader."

"You said they live comfortably?" Double H asked. "Does that mean they have everything they need in their homes? It would explain why they never come out," he said.

[Kylo]

((OOC: Lawl Rufus is plotting to help people in a way that he has nothing to gain from. This is so not like him, though he would normally side with Cora. Afterall no planet means nowhere to live and, more importantly, no money or power.))
Rufus felt that he sided with Cora on the whoel planet destruction thing. Sure he himself had nearly ruined a planet, but he hadn't destroyed it. Besides he was doing work to fix his mistakes. He had known all along that the so called "ruler" was worthless and had intended on ousting him out of power earlier, and now, well, now he really wanted the guy gone. He remind him far too much of his pathetic father, who was gratefully dead now. It was one of the few things that, in Rufus' opinion, Sephiroth had done right.

"It sounds suspiciously like my world once was. The upper plates of the city of Midgar was home to the most wealthy who, in my opion, did nothing of value. Anyway I have a much more important question, does this so called ruler have an army at his disposal? If he does then things can get to be a bit difficult later on." Oh he had a plan now. A very good one in fact. He could easily just suggest to these people to do somethign akin to what AVALANCHE did and throw in a bit of the law making ideas from the WRO and they could easily set up a government to the people's liking and take care of the idiot ruler all in one fell swoop. Yes things were getting interesting again and Rufus felt his spirits raise.

[auntslappy282]

((XD;; To be fair, only two of the trolls, (not here) Knew what the 'game' would do to there planet. XD Oh, and braking up the teams would not be a good idea. XD -shot-))

Terezi turned her head and laughed at Cora, as she smelt the frustration oozing off of her. Her sharp teeth were rather scary in her mouth. She smiled and cackled slightly while she listened to the baker. She nodded and then her face changed drastically when Rufus began speaking. She really didn't trust this man in the slightest and would rather not resort to violence. She stood up, letting her cane fall to the floor. She glared at Rufus, her red eyes showing over her glasses.

Eridan slowly got up from his chair and moved closer to Terezi. "Hey Ter, lets calm down okay?" Terezi turned around and glared at him, making him put his hands up and sit back down. She looked around at the group and then focused on Rufus and Cora.

"No matter what ANY of you think, we will NOT resort to a fight and kill INNOCENT people! I am sure, no positive, that there is a way to do this in a lawyerly fashion! I am sorry, but... I'm not gonna let people die again! Humans or not, evil or not, there is a way around this!" Terezi shouted, her voice echoing around the room. She stood quiet, her hands clenched and her head down. Tears would be forming if her tear ducts weren't burned so bad.

[zapdragon555]

Tavros, Clive, and Eddie were silent, shocked but impressed with Terezi's outburst. The latter was the first to speak. "That little gray girl has the right idea," he said gruffly. "The people here will not respond well to violence. They'll fight back with whatever weapons they can find."

Clive cast his eyes downward at that. "No, violence won't work," he murmured softly. He'd had enough killing for one lifetime. Jail had given the man time to think, and while his reasons were not political-based... Well, not directly... he regretted what he'd done. Hundreds of lives were probably lost that day-- Clive never received the death toll-- and he was cut emotionally by every one. He shook himself from his trance and looked up at Terezi. "Surely we can reason with these people... show them they have nothing to fear of us."

"Now that's the idea," Eddie said gently. After a moment, the baker turned to Double H. "Regarding your question... I'm not entirely sure about that, son, but I assume that's a right good guess," he said. "Never lived in the city, m'self. So I couldn't tell you for sure."

[Freezair]

"Yeah, I would rather not fight," Cora agreed. "But let's not get our dander up just yet." Then she thought: get our dander up? How old am I, 60? "Double H, that's a good hunch. Hmm... Hey!"

Cora pointed a finger at Eddie, with a sudden, scheming grin on her face. "Hey! You seem like you know this village! Do you know if anyone's ever left the city and come to this village? We could really use an inside angle. ...If not, we can keep asking around. But you helped a lot, so thanks!"

"If push comes to shove, well, I can throw a punch or two," Double H said. He streched his arms and shoulders; he didn't intend to flex his muscles, but they were quite apparent. "But even though I've fought impossible odds before... I'd rather not do it again so soon. And we went about that tactically. If there is an army, we will need to plan thoroughly."