multiversallogs | (no subject)

Who: Gabriel & Random Meetings
What: Rogues do what rogues do best. Stalk people.
Where: Valhalla Inn -> Mafaton -> Who knows?
When: Sukkardi the 14th, Ruudary
Warnings: Some zombie gore.

Gabriel had never really expected anything else from this place, so the outrage from the violent scenes shown in the CiDs didn't bother him. Humans were evil, xenophobic assholes. Nothing new there. It just proved that this place was no different from Azeroth, and you could never be safe if you were a little bit different. (Then again, where was the fun in that?) If they acted this way towards the 'xenians', how would they treat the undead?

The fact that he could move almost anywhere unseen was a plus for someone that could be mistaken for someone far too interested in brains (not that he didn't mind a bite or two) but it made things a bit difficult when it came to moving Styx away from Valhalla. He needed to get away from that place and the multitude of confused newcomers, but the skeletal horse wasn't exactly easy to hide.... and it lacked Gabriel's stealthing skills. What kind of place would take such an animal, and how could he find out if he could not speak to people?

So what do you do about something like that? Beat up a guy, steal his clothes and hide yourself, of course! A hoodie was a bit odd for someone used to leather armor, but it covered up his rotted face quite well, especially combined with a scarf. Adding gloves and a baggy pair of pants, he looked fairly incognito. Enough to go out on the streets without hiding in the shadow, invisible for the naked eye... and hopefully he could meet people to wring out information from.

Even if they needed a sharp incentive.

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"Sorry," he whispered. He paused, considering again whether it would be wise to reveal information to a stranger, but he realized that it would be very unlikely that someone like this would even associate with anyone who would cause Jay any trouble. After all, a garuda would not likely want to hold a conversation with a decaying corpse, and it didn't seem like this man had much interaction with humans.

Then, after glancing around nervously again in case anyone was around to hear and confirming that no one was, Jay whispered very, very quietly. "If it makes you feel better, normally what you are doing wouldn't be as effective if I tried it. Normally I'm a naga."

That... actually sets him off course for a moment. In Azeroth, naga were quite striking and not even slightly human in their appearance. This boy looked nothing like them. Then again, Gabriel had heard about species-changing artifacts in his world. If the 'naga' had anything like that...

"Oh, really..." His mouth twists a bit into a grin. "You're less scaly than I expected."

Moving even closer, the undead rogue glances over Jay, looking for anything like an orb or a medallion. Anything that could be changing the boy's appearance magically.

"I'm usually a bit scalier than this."

In his own world, nagas in their natural form didn't look terribly human either, after all. They were very large snakes capable of taking on human shape or human features as necessary. However, while no artifacts were needed for this, there was a stainless steel ring on Jay's pinky finger that he always wore which could be mistaken for such an artifact. As the undead creature moved nearer, Jay watched him closely, gauging his movements. As long as he was simply examining Jay for chinks in his guise, that would be fine, but since this encounter had been uneasy so far, he wanted to keep a close eye on this stranger.

Hm. How curious. Gabriel's hollow gaze focus on the ring for just a moment, and then the sickly yellow glow is redirected towards Jay once more. He appeared fully human, as far as the undead man could see. No flaws. Just odd glasses and clothing, but that seemed to be the norm here.

"Very impressive..." He hisses, leaning even closer. "Just how to you achieve this?"

Gabriel reaches out his hand, trying to place his rotted, bone-tipped fingers on Jay's shoulder to make sure that he was solid.

Jay's skin crawled as the undead creature leaned far too close for comfort. He heard the question, but didn't answer right away, distracted by the fingers reaching toward him. Jumping back with a startled hiss, Jay quickly evaded the touch. He may be a 'freak' as well in his natural state, and he may be fine with a wide variety of creatures that may normally be considered terrifying, but there was something about being touched by a living corpse that he couldn't handle.

"Magic," he answered. "I don't really know how to explain it, it's just something nagas in my world learn to do in my world at an early age so that we can survive in the human world. As long as we are conscious, we can will ourselves to take on human form, but it's not something I could teach to someone who isn't a naga."

He chuckles a bit at the way Jay jumped back, and removes his hand in a placating gesture. Gabriel enjoyed freaking people out, but at the moment his sadism was overruled by his curiosity.

"Ah... such a pity." The rogue was not certain he fully believed the boy, but he would accept this answer for now. After all, he did not know this version of naga or what their abilities were.

Backing off a bit, he hid his frightening hand over the fabric of his shirt again. "But lucky for you, hmm? I assume people are not too fond of giant snakes."

"Yeah. Baedal's so different from home so I don't know what would happen or if people would even care if they saw me for what I truly was, but I don't want to take that risk. It's one thing for humans to accept a cute fairy girl, but I think they'd be a bit more wary if they knew I was a large, venomous snake. Back home, revealing your true form would probably be deadly."

And that was why humans often no longer believed in nagas, though all the same it would be dangerous. Humans weren't exactly hesitant when it came to killing dangerous snakes, or most weren't, anyway. Jay wasn't bitter about it, by any means, it wasn't like it was a regular issue since nagas quite simply didn't let humans know what they were, and humans were quite content to ignore any oddities in order to live in ignorance. The 'probably' was in there because this was an assumption, never tested. Unlike the garuda, they did not seek out his kind to kill them.

"Heh. Then you and I have something in common." Gabriel says, nodding to the rest of the people passing by. The people seemed to be occupied with their own lives, not knowing that there was a zombie and a snake standing among them. Even the xenian people seemed to blend in among the humans - at least in Gabriel's mind.

"You think someone like me would be accepted among these living fools?" He chuckles slightly, but it is surprisingly dry and bitter. "No. It is just like home. Humans rule, and what they fear, they destroy."

Just like in that video that had leaked over the CiDs.

"Yeah...good thing I didn't drop my cover when I saw Megan walking around freely, then. There are far more non-humans than where I come from, so I have wondered if there were too many for humans to have to 'just destroy' reaction. Wasn't willing to test it, though."

He was glad he wasn't when he saw the events over the CiD, but he hadn't really understood those, or why they happened, or the background...and that was what scared him most. Without understanding why it happened, how could he prevent it from happening to him one day?