(4:49:07 AM) Otgonbayar: Otty... quicks an eyebrow, pushing down the desires growing in him for a moment. "... Um. What."
(4:49:30 AM) Otgonbayar: "I thought things liket his only happened in wierd TV shows. Or Japan. Or I guess wierd japanese TV shows."
(4:51:34 AM) Otgonbayar left the room (quit: Quit: ).
(4:51:59 AM) Feldi: "Reminds me of his dining room..." Dia mutters under her breath.
(4:52:29 AM) Earthflame: "...Whose?" Kyolin asks.
(4:52:48 AM) Feldi: "Night Rose's."
(4:53:20 AM) ***Glacier_Jade frowns. "...this one is a bit werid for me."
(4:53:42 AM) Susu: Susu marvels at the craftsmanship for a moment, but her thoughts soon wander at the sight of the staff, studying their expressions intently...
(4:53:59 AM) ***Xiaozhi shifts uncomfortably. "This is giving me ideas," she stage-whispers to Minx.
(4:55:13 AM) Adrielle: "I'm not into this scene either. I love making people into my personal thrones, but this is more than a little off. Particularly how... compliant they all are, like they were drugged, or hypnotized."
(4:56:01 AM) Feldi: Dia looks over the whole scene. "I don't know if this is weirder than fondue maids or not..."
(4:57:26 AM) Earthflame: A pair who could be twins, but hopefully aren't from the way they're rubbing up against one another, approach the group with strange, listless smiles. The woman of the pair speaks first. "Welcome to the fourth hall~" The man follows on from her. "Would you like either of us to be your table?~"
(4:58:07 AM) Susu: Susu's hands curl into fists as her eyes flash green for a moment, turning her back to the view of the room as she lifts a closed fist to her mouth, biting down on it to help calm herself.
(5:00:23 AM) Feldi: "Has anyone else just entered this hall?" She asks the twins.
(5:02:02 AM) Earthflame: They blink, apparently a little confused. "I..." Says the man, frowning a bit, as the woman shakes her head, apparently slightly more clear headed than her companion. "We wouldn't know. I was in use until recently, and getting cleaned up after that."
(5:02:22 AM) Glacier_Jade: "In use?"
(5:03:41 AM) Earthflame: "As a table~" She almost breathes the words, shivering... Apparently taking a lot of pleasure from the memory. Or maybe just the drugs.
(5:04:20 AM) Feldi: Dia hits upon a thought. "Where do you go to clean up?"
(5:05:12 AM) Earthflame: She gestures vaguely towards a staff corridor... As there are gasps and sounds of mild alarm from around the room. Looking up, framed in the spotlights is one of Tide's sharks, apparently lurking around after sensing the presence of its mistress.
(5:05:47 AM) Feldi: "Is that-?" Dia turns round to look at Tide.
(5:11:53 AM) Susu: The green and black girl takes a deep breath, forcing herself to relax and untense; This was not the time to lose her temper, no matter how angry she was.
(5:12:57 AM) Adrielle: Tide glances up, and steps forward to get a central position, where everyone can see and hear her, in the entire Hall. "You all have no need to fear. That beautiful specimin of the deeps is one of my own, raised from her youth. I assure you all she would never dream of harming any of you without provocation either. She simply felt the presence of her beloved Mistress, and wished to greet me~."
(5:13:51 AM) Earthflame: The shark makes a surprisingly playful gesture, twirling in the water above the hall... Drawing a rather impressed 'Ooooh' from the customers.
(5:14:45 AM) ***Glacier_Jade rolls her eyes. "Show off." Says miss pot.
(5:15:10 AM) ***Susu glances up at this point, using the shark as a way to distract her mind.
(5:15:34 AM) Feldi: Dia places her free hand on Susu's back. "Are you ok?" She asks softly.
(5:16:22 AM) Susu: "... Those expressions... hit a bit too close to home." Susu mumbles in reply, pulling her gaze away from the shark as she shakes her head.
(5:16:58 AM) Feldi: "Once we've dealt with Night Rose, we'll get all of them out of here."
(5:17:10 AM) ***Xiaozhi glances at the corridor that Dia's question received as an answer, and leans up to whisper in Minx's ear. "Let me go, please. I've got a plan."
(5:18:40 AM) Earthflame: Minx glances at Xiaozhi... And nods, unhooking her leash and curling it around her wrist instead. "I'll wait for you." She whispers back. The Third Dragon Princess looks between the lying figures and Tide, blushing slightly, while Dragonfly looks oddly curious. Kyolin just clings tighter to Dia.
(5:18:41 AM) Susu: "I know, I..." Susu trails off as she sighs "... I'm gonna see if I can find Pen. He might know about the previous owner, and maybe about your mentor as well." she says, giving Dia a slight smile "It's the best I can do to help us."
(5:19:35 AM) Feldi: "Ok, with Tide holding everyone's attention, you should be able to find him, if he's here."
(5:20:08 AM) Feldi: "Actually...I'll come with you.  He might have walked to another Hall."
(5:21:57 AM) Susu: The bear-eared girl glances around the room before she looks to Dia "I think he might have. I can't see him here."
(5:25:42 AM) Xiaozhi: She nods and smiles at Minx, then sneaks off, leaving her high heels behind, heading for the service corridor...
(5:26:37 AM) Earthflame: The path to the Fifth Hall is an arching glass tunnel, multicoloured lights shining up into the waters creating a pleasant effect as they pass through. It's also rather shorter than the corridor leading to the Fourth, making it very easy to get between the two.
(5:27:25 AM) ***Glacier_Jade traces her hand along the glass, leaving trails of ice.
(5:28:18 AM) Susu: Susu seems to be calming down now, the frown replaced by a thoughtful expression as they move towards the next hall.
(5:29:44 AM) Earthflame: It's not exactly hard to sneak amidst the staff, all of them either currently or recently addled, and the drugs aren't exactly hidden, small bundles of pills in what might be an alcohol solution to keep them all sterile and preserved, line up like shot glasses to be taken at a moments notice. Still, at least someone is paying the slightest bit of attention, all of them sealed with foil. It's
(5:29:44 AM) Earthflame: easy to palm one, and it likely won't be missed.
(5:34:43 AM) Xiaozhi: With everyone still distracted by the shark, the girl in the green dress hurries back out to Minx, climbing back into her shoes. "Got it," she whispers. "And thanks for staying."
(5:35:24 AM) Earthflame: Minx smiles, giving her a quick kiss. "I'd never leave you behind. Let's go." she glances at one of the tables. "I could almost enjoy it if they weren't all so... That."
(5:35:54 AM) Xiaozhi: "I know, right?" she agrees. "Come by the clinic some time. You and me and Mimi can take turns."
(5:37:16 AM) Earthflame: Minx laughs at that, moving to catch up with the rest.
(5:38:00 AM) ***Xiaozhi goes too!
(5:38:12 AM) Earthflame: Minx reattaches the leash~
(5:38:19 AM) Xiaozhi: Especially since Minx reattached the leash and it's only got about six feet of lead at the best of times.
(5:39:49 AM) Earthflame: The fifth hall is also partially roofed with glass, but also incorporates part of the stone of the shoreline, natural rock walls making up the back half of the room. A large viewing gallery of the water is visible to a number of tables, in slightly offset tiers descending downwards. There's also a bar... A very, very strange bar. It's a large and modern affair, with lots of drinks and glasses
(5:39:49 AM) Earthflame: and instruments of the mixologist... And a number of naked human figures, held or bound or lying in various positions, with the same blissed out look as those in the fourth hall.
(5:41:06 AM) Xiaozhi: "This is weirder," she asides to Dia as the group enters the fifth hall. "Like...what's even the point?"
(5:41:12 AM) Earthflame: They're perfectly arranged for the art of mixing and pouring drinks, it seems, as one person pours from a bottle between a womans breasts, the liquid running along her skin, down one long leg to drip into a glass... Melding with her blood, leaking from a small cut to her thigh. A young man in a similar position moans, liquid dripping from the tip of his erect cock, a quick jerk from the bartender
(5:41:12 AM) Earthflame: finishing off the obscene concoction with a spurt of cum. Strange tastes indeed...
(5:41:45 AM) Xiaozhi: "...Oh."
(5:41:51 AM) Feldi: Dia just groans, her palm covering her face.
(5:42:29 AM) ***Glacier_Jade blanches
(5:43:20 AM) Feldi: "I wish I could say the blood is new, but he always loved to say 'roses have thorns."" Those around her get the feeling she'd make a gagging noise, if she a ruder person.
(5:43:23 AM) Feldi: was a *
(5:43:38 AM) Xiaozhi: "I know the stuff they're putting in their drinks," she says. Then she blushes and clarifies, "I mean the people at the bar. Their drinks. The drugs. Why they look so spaced out."
(5:44:25 AM) Susu: Susu places her face in her hands, taking the kind of deep breath of someone who's about to lose all faith in humanity
(5:45:34 AM) ***Glacier_Jade looks away from the bar, looking a bit pale.
(5:45:47 AM) Xiaozhi: "Let's keep going...I mean, it's probably only going to get worse, but...maybe at the end we'll *find* Night Rose."
(5:46:09 AM) Feldi: Dia manages a wane smile. "Maybe, let's keep going."
(5:46:11 AM) Susu: The green and black sighs and looks around the room, trying to spot her target.
(5:46:40 AM) Earthflame: The customers going too and fro are so strangely blase about it. Looking at the people and how they're being used without any apparently understanding that what they're doing is wrong... Instead they simple smile and drink and laugh.
(5:49:34 AM) ***Xiaozhi is pretty sure that the bodily fluids added to drinks are carrying trace amounts of drugs; the "customers" may not be getting as blitzed as the "staff," but it's probably enough to dull higher thinking.
(5:52:07 AM) Earthflame: Passing through the sixth hall brings you back towards the the Hall proper, away from the river and returning inland. The corridor is quite narrow, with soft walls and an intimate red light, which continues as they emerge... The space isn't large but it is tall, multiple levels that can be reached by ladders or stairs, tables and platforms and cages scattered around as thumping music plays,
(5:52:07 AM) Earthflame: much like the club outside... Save for the human decorations.
(5:52:53 AM) Xiaozhi: "Every time I think Hell can't get any weirder," she complains to the group, "weird tentacle beasts pop out of paintings in the walls and threaten to rape me."
(5:53:04 AM) Earthflame: People hanging from ropes or pinned to walls or laid, strapped across tables, clearly as blissed out as those elsewhere... With the customers greatly enjoying use of them, touching and stroking and teasing them even as they dance and smile, some having no pretense as they fuck or ride the pinned people like they were nothing more than toys.
(5:54:15 AM) ***Glacier_Jade looks visibly sick, not even making a joke about Xiaozhi's comment
(5:55:35 AM) Susu: Susu looks a bit greener than usual herself, leaning in to hug Jade with an expression mirroring her own.
(5:56:58 AM) Earthflame: At first glance there isn't an obvious way out... And then they can see that it's actually above, at the very top of the strange space.
(5:58:23 AM) ***Xiaozhi taps Jade and Susu on the head and points upward, so they can get past the place and into the hall on the other side.
(5:58:36 AM) Xiaozhi: Or corridor, given they're in a capital-H Hall presently.
(5:58:39 AM) Feldi: Dia is about to ask Xiao about that comment before they step into the rose-coloured space. She looks up and up, finding the exit far above. "Night Rose is making us work for this."
(5:59:04 AM) Susu: "Please look after Jade..." the berserker asks the others in a strangled voice, before letting the lady of ice go and diving into the crowd, beginning her hunt for that very ill-named man! "Can't think about the drugged people! Don't think about the drugged people!" her eyes flash green again "No!No!No! Focus! Find Pen! Ask questions!"
(6:00:01 AM) Earthflame: ...And there she sees him. Bad Penny, in the company of a few other men and women... Apparently smiling and laughing as one of them casually fucks a woman strapped to the table before him, Bad Penny leaning his elbow on her as if he thought nothing of it, or of her... Looking just like one of them.
(6:01:31 AM) Susu: Susu stops dead in her tracks, the world crawling to stop as she stares... not even at him, just into thin air, a single, tiny thought sounding in her mind "...Fuck...."
(6:07:30 AM) Xiaozhi: "It's pretty weird, yeah," she agrees with Dia.
(6:09:02 AM) ***Susu grits her teeth as she turns her face downwards, eyes flicker and flash green, creating a small groove in the floor from where she was rubbing in one of the heels. "Stay... Calm... You can't... lose your shit... now. D-damnit..." she says internally, her body trembling with the occassional shudder.
(6:09:40 AM) Adrielle: Tide looks disgusted. "This shit pisses me off. People are supposed to be subserviant because they enjoy it, not because they're drugged off their asses."
(6:10:11 AM) Xiaozhi: "That's right!" She grabs Jade's hand and tugs.
(6:11:47 AM) Feldi: Dia places a reassuring hand on Jade's shoulder.
(6:11:48 AM) ***Glacier_Jade lets herself get tugged. "Huh?"
(6:13:11 AM) Xiaozhi: "Stay with us now, okay?" she says, concern evident in her features. "We'll get out of here soon."
(6:13:31 AM) Glacier_Jade: "Right...I'm fine..." She's visibly not.
(6:14:34 AM) Xiaozhi: "Nuh uh, you're not, but I'm sure when we leave you'll be up to your old self again."
(6:14:36 AM) Earthflame: The Chi in here, in all the middle three halls, has the exact same wild, pulsing cadence as elsewhere... Almost too much Chi, and in a way that is strangely artificial... Perhaps  vulnerability opened up in the people, or just the desperation in the customers after being starved so long. Lacking anything, and then being pushed over the edge into near madness by sheer excess...
(6:18:10 AM) ***Xiaozhi can feel her Wood chi sort of reverberating with the lively pulses in here, but it's not the same, seeing as the "life" in here is desperate, fake, unnatural. She tugs on Jade's arm. "C'mon, you guys...let's find Susu and keep moving, kay?"
(6:18:15 AM) Feldi: Dia rubs Jade's back. "I wish I could say the last three halls will be better...but I doubt they are."
(6:19:58 AM) Susu: The berserker takes a deep breath, eyes closed tight as she does the first thing that came into mind to vent some of her anger... short of making a wall into rubble. She lifts one of her feet and *slams* it into the floor.
(6:23:09 AM) Earthflame: That draws more than a few yelps and cries, people toppling out of chairs and one even going off the platform entirely- Although they are a Xia, so it's not too bad. Stranger still is the chorus of gasps and moans from the various bound and pinned people... And a shout from the table Bad Penny is at, an angry looking young man rising after falling, having been wrenched from his plaything, still
(6:23:09 AM) Earthflame: only half dressed as he glares at her. "What the fuck are you doing?"
(6:24:06 AM) Feldi: Dia feels the ground rumble beneath her feet. "That's probably Susu!" She hurries down onto the main floor of the Hall.
(6:24:40 AM) Xiaozhi: "Guess we don't have to find her," she quips, gesturing for others to follow Dia.
(6:24:51 AM) Susu: Susu opens her eyes, the glare seering, but her eyes at least only flickered green occassionally now "I could ask you the same question..." she growls in return, her shoulders moving up and down as she takes a deep breath.
(6:24:55 AM) ***Glacier_Jade follows quietly.
(6:25:47 AM) Earthflame: Bad Penny glances up... No affection in his eyes or voice as he puts a hand on the mans shoulder. "She's not worth it. Probably just drunk or jealous or both. Ignore her. Security will deal with her if need be."
(6:28:11 AM) Susu: Susu's breathing was coming out in faint pants as she points at Bad Penny "You can fuck right off!" she snipes
(6:28:15 AM) Otgonbayar [[email protected]] entered the room.
(6:29:14 AM) Earthflame: He just rolls his eyes, trying to pull his friend back... The man looking uncertain, caught between the two.