#sklonda: its your turn.

[dullgecko]

In a attempt to be a inclusive of everyone’s needs as possible Jawbone has turned room near the into only food storage there are areas for each races needs and dietary requirements along with areas in them if someone other needs.

There are also areas for common residents of the manor (non manorling bad kids)

Half orc area (Gorgug and the Barkrock)

Mainly meats and other high protein foods

Stocked by Lydia in an attempt to help Gorgug as he eats “too little”

Goblin area (Riz)

90% coffee

Sklonda also stocks it in an attempt to feed Riz some non coffee based foods.

Human area (Kristen, Tracker and Jawbone)

Stocked by Jawbone and Kristen.

What you would expect in the average home

Werewolf area (Tracker and Jawbone)

Stocked by Jawbone

Contains raw meats and dog treats for tracker ( Jawbone has tried to stop Trackrr eating them but can’t)

Infernal (originally tiefling but had to be changed as Fig became more devil than teifling) (Fig)

Stocked by FUg with the help of Gorthalax getting things she can’t

Hell based spices

Whatever hell based food Fig is trying this week

Elf (Adaine, Aelwyn, Sandra lynn)

Stocked by all three members

Similar to the human area but with stupid amounts of fallinel teas that Adaine and Aelwyn drink

Half-elf (Fabian)

Mainly snacks for when he is staying there and for movie nights

Fig steals from this one claiming that she is technically a half elf too. Fabain pretends to hate it but really doesn’t mind

Ghost (Zayn)

Stocked by Jawbone with items from Zayn’s requests

Ghost foods

Half phoenix (Ayda)

Jawbone added this one after Ayda started spending her not working time at Mordred more often than not

A lot of pirate based foods

Foods Ayda knows Fig likes as she knows when fig doesn’t like whatever new hell food she’s trying this week she doesn’t have much else in for herself

In the manor it is practically a crime to steal someone else food and they all respect this apart from fig with Fabian’s.

This system has tripped up guests on many occasions when they accidentally open the wrong cupboard and are slightly confused why it’s only coffee in there.

Stealing food is not allowed but they definitly all share all the time as long as they're asked first. You just have to be careful when choosing snacks out of someone elses area (with permission) because it might be completely unpalatable to your species (or straight up inedible, many a manor resident has accidentally got food poisoning by sampling something they shouldnt).

Human food is the safest, because humans have THE blandest pallet and zero resistances to anything (tracker and jawbone have to stay away from the chocolate, grapes and onions though, they're very allergic).

Elven food is usually fine too, but some of the snacks have weird little magical effects for the 'aesthetics' that interact weirdly with some species. Gorgug had some sort of fancy fairy-bread, and was hiccuping butterflies made of bubbles for three hours afterwards (which was weird, it was SUPPOSED to make your hair change colour for a while before turning back to normal. Adaine wrote the manufacturer a letter stating that there should really be a warning on the label). Adaines cupboard is also stocked with little biscuits she made for fun. People are free to take a few but always try to save some just in case Aelwyn comes to visit.

Gorgug, Rahg and Riz are not allowed to share any of their food that has mushrooms in it except with eachother, especially if its something that has been specifically made for their species (goblin made cured meats are delicious but some species just cant handle a little toadstool). Some of the stuff they can eat is straight up toxic.

[remidyal]

Bad Ideas of the Day, part two, the Baddening.

Going to start posting these once a month or so; the prior list is here.

Bad Idea of the Day, too early to be awake but too late to go back to bed edition: Fig, obsessed with finding out who her real dad is and why her mom won't tell her, figures out the truth halfway through freshman year: Gilear is, in fact, an incredibly powerful demon who Arthur Aguefort sealed away into the body of a wood elf and cursed to be the most pathetic imaginable version of himself. Sandra Lynn struck it off with him anyway, but can't risk Gilear actually finding out lest the curse be broken and destruction be wrought and such.

Bad idea of the day, You're Taking This Much Too Seriously edition: The Olympic Games are coming to New York City, against all logic and reason for choosing a host city! Even worse news than the grift and monetary disasters comes along with this, however: dream versions of the Greek Gods start invading Nod and from there start to spread into the waking world, creating the kind of havoc that one would expect from that pantheon.

Bad idea of the day, fake holiday edition: Adaine, in an increasing bid to get away from home more, makes up stranger and stranger holidays that she is obliged to help her party celebrate at night that her parents will believe

Bad idea of the day, Spring Break edition: Preemptively wanting to dodge getting stuck with a shitty quest again this year, the Bad Kids pick their own, travelling to Highcourt to handle a dispute regarding an arranged marriage between two of the ruling families. Are the bad kids the right group to send in when you need to create a semblence of love?

Bad idea of the day, you'll get stuck that way edition: Following yet another unwise use of disguise self, Fig is alarmed to realize that she cannot dismiss the spell and she appears to be someone who is going to have a lot of problems (Your pick of who, because honestly she regularly turns into horrific choices to be, probably reached at its peak when within like a day she turns into Arthur around Ayda and then into Arianwen around Adaine and Aelwyn)

Bad idea of the day, charts and graphs edition: Riz, in the time before Aguefort, manages to accidentally lay out his conspiracy board in exactly the right arcane pattern to offer to pact himself to the nearest being with power enough to take the deal: Kalina.

Bad idea of the day, bad idea of the day edition: A fic following a week in the life of Fig from the point of view of each of her friends trying to talk or trick her out of doing something insane and reckless that might get them all hurt or humiliated.

Bad idea of the day, ASO edition, spoilers through finale: In an attempt to follow Margaret's path of gaining money after leaving UFTP, Lucienne Rex uses her new profession to enter the galaxy's most deadly and rewarding cooking contest, the Battle of the Blends.

Bad idea of the day, FDA edition: The Bad Kids are forced to admit to failure when they all contract severe food poisoning from spoiled crab and shrimp, handing the victory to the nightmare king through default

Bad idea of the day, don't mix the pasta and the antipasti edition: Riz and Sklonda discover, to their horror, that dragons pass their power on after death through their flesh and now both of them have a minor problem that any time they're too excited or even just breath too deeply they're suddenly quite literally spitting fire. Can they deal with this while living in an apartment building with no sprinklers, smoke detectors, or fire escapes?

Bad idea of the day, do you have any idea how much a 2-foot diameter glass orb weighs edition: Adaine is, it turns out, every bit as bad at magic as her parents claim, mostly because of a complete lack of confidence. However, she learns in a hurry after killing people with a ladle, her magical focus, and then her bare hands, she's a freaking natural at improvised weapons. (Almost certainly eventually a monk classswap) Though honestly it might be funnier if she just kept taking wizard levels and being bad at that part of things

Bad idea of the day, overly dangerous summer jobs edition: Fabian, having given away ALL of his money to remove a curse, takes on the single most lethal job in all of elmville, that thin line between civilization and chaos, delivering pizza on the Hangman. Can he make it through three months of nights with a town full of hungry adventurers ordering food without getting himself killed, and can he make enough in tips to pay for the property taxes for the year on Seacaster Manor?

Bad idea of the day, reality show edition: The Bad Kids need to infiltrate a singing contest for a quest, but Fig and Gorgug are well known professionals, Kristen and Adaine are famous for other reasons, and Fabian is disqualified for having Bard levels. Can Fig coach Riz into not getting disqualified before they can complete their quest?

Bad idea of the day, mom joke edition: Pete the Plug is taking a rare trip outside of the city of New York in order to relax when, in an emergency situation out of a bajillion 80s and 90s movies, both the pilot and copilot are rendered unable to fly the plane. With radio communication out and none of the computer functions work, Pete is forced to rely on a new spell he just got working to manually operate the aircraft: Plane Shift.

Bad idea of the day, Starstruck finale edition: Inspired by Riva's words at their wedding, Bambi and Plug search for three more soulmates who they can love fiercely enough to spawn ten thousand children.

Bad idea of the day, A Courtroom of Fey and Flowers edition: Can judge Andhera and his loyal, eager baliff KP Hob manage to keep the dignity of the court as they try a case of family drama between a grandfather and his rackish grandchildren? Why does the peppy district attorney Gwendolyn Thistlehop seem to be hiding some sort of strange secret? Can he just get through the trial without embarrassing himself by revealing that he never really wanted this job?

No. No, he can't.

[creacherkeeper]

AAAAA SAME ANON AND I LOVE UR THOUGHTS ON THIS AU SO MUCH!!!! hskdhdkdbd PLEASE ignore this if u don’t want to talk about this au of course, but honestly i only have more !!!!! about it with every piece of info. like the line about fabian and riz’s jaeger being “unstoppable. almost.” and about how adaine joins the fray specifically bc they’re down and adaine and aelwyn are the only ppl who can fill in their place right now. also how kristen is drift compatible with everyone im!!

NO NO NO IM SO HAPPY TO TALK ABOUT IT!!!! like pacific rim really blessed us by not only being an AMAZING movie but also the best au fodder of all time??? god pacific rim au my beloved <3

some additional stuff because i cant stop:

i think ayda and adaine are totally drift compatible, but never tested together, as ayda only joined the program to pilot with fig

penelope, dayne, and ragh actually triple piloted until fig signed up. everyone thought it was better to separate penelope and dayne because they were ... not always team players when together. but after it came out everything that had been happening between dayne and ragh, that decision was heavily regretted. ragh got ... a lot of counseling after dayne was kicked out. when he was moved to combat trainer, he got a lot happier and became good friends with tracker, who'd been on base long enough to see everything go down

ayda and aelwyn actually knew each other in undergrad. aelwyn became friends with her mostly for strategic purposes, because she was the daughter of the head of the jaeger program and aelwyn wanted to build jaegers. ayda became friends with her because they were both the youngest in the STEM program and she was desperate for someone she could relate to, at least a little. they got along okay but didn't really keep in touch after graduation. they didn't start getting closer until aelwyn became a pilot, because then they COULD actually relate to each other, as scientists-turned-fighters

ayda still found out she was autistic through jawbone, once she finished school and came to base to study kaiju. she opened up to him about how hard it was to relate to her peers, and he was like kiddo youre probably autistic?? like over half of the scientists here are?? and she was like. OH. after everythings over and fig goes back to being a musician, she donates a lot of her touring profits to autistic-led advocacy groups because like. she's literally felt what it's like to live with an autistic brain, and it makes her the biggest ally of all time (and ayda being a very prominent autistic scientist AND pilot actually does like. SO MUCH for autism acceptance. she frequently gives lectures on fig's touring routes)

after they close the breach, fabian gets into a huge blowout fight with bill. cause bill makes his money by selling kaiju parts, so without the kaiju, he doesn't have a job. and by that point fabian has had enough distance and experience that he's like. i would have died for you but i fucking made a name for myself that was better than anything you've ever tried to do, now i get to live for me. and even though he wasn't expecting it, bill actually completely accepts and supports that

yeah so pok actually died cause he got eaten by a kaiju after drifting with one using the pons system he invented. its extremely difficult to hear but riz is also like. that is the most badass thing ive ever fucking heard oh my god (they name the neuroscience program at riz's college after pok. sklonda starts law school there the year after they close the breach)

kristen literally proposes to tracker the day after they close it, barely conscious, with a giant hole in her chest, from her hospital bed. everyone is like. my dude. tracker thinks its extremely romantic

(they end up adopting a bunch of kids who were orphaned because of kaiju attacks)

gorgug goes to college and becomes a high school social studies teacher. zelda runs a local gym. they have an extremely quiet life and are happy to, most of the time, not be noticed or bothered. every once in a while an extremely nerdy kid will recognize gorgug's PARENTS as jaeger mechanics and completely ignore gorgug and zelda thinks its hilarious

after they close the breach, the abernant parents reach out to BOTH aelwyn and adaine to ask them to come back home to visit and be celebrated. and theyre like. mmmm fuck that actually?? but adaine does have a BIT of an existential crisis cause shes like OKAY WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO WITH MY LIFE NOW?? they actually end up getting a little apartment together somewhere and aelwyn pays the bills as an engineer making advanced prosthetics. she encourages adaine to just try out as much as possible, and she takes a ton of classes at the community college, the community center, and at various local businesses. but its actually jawbone who inspires her to go back for another degree and become a psych researcher. she makes waves in the trauma and ptsd field

theyre all pretty happy that kalvaxis, category iv, and nightmare, category v, got blown to hell at the bottom of the ocean

[lillaskiten]

Ok so fantasy high is definitely a new obsession because i even wrote fanfic about it. First time posting any of my writing so like, be gentle. anyway this happened because i think The Ball is a stupid nickname but the potential for drama is delicious. Also fabriz is good. The “The Ball” Thing Summary: Riz stands up for himself after it’s all over. Not everyone is thrilled. Important conversations get interjected with important shenanigans.

Despite everything, The Bad Kids were in good spirits when they stepped out of Principal Agueforts office. It had been a harrowing spring break. Between evil shadow clones, demons and beings of pure nightmare it was sure to leave its mark. Jawbone really had his work cut out for him. Adaine still wasn’t over dying for the first time. Fig also died for the first time. She’s good though.

But now they were back in Elmville, heroes once again despite multiple murders, thefts and property damages. It’s familiar and invigorating.

Gorgug took Zelda on a date as soon as they got back. It wasn’t gonna heal over night, but they were working it out. Fig planned an actual vacation for her and Gilear who, gods know how, actually made it back. Adaine, Kristen and Tracker held a celebratory welcome home party at Mordred manor to actually try to get acquainted with their new home. Riz and Fabian immediately met up with their respective mothers to barrage them with the tales of their adventure.

It was good. They were home.

Walking out of the school they couldn’t help but notice Riz walking especially upright. He smiled like he did when on the verge of a breakthrough. Stepping out into the school parking lot he stopped them with certainty that was almost certainly unfounded.

“I would like all of you to follow me to my office,” he said with a glint in his eyes.

“Uh, sure... Why?” Adaine was first to question.

“Please just come along, I happen to have an announcement!” the triumph in his voice was unmistakable.

“That you can’t tell us in the parking lot?” Kristen said.

“Of course not!” though everyone could see how he barely held whatever it was in. “It needs to be official.”

Well, it was Riz. Whatever it was it was probably important. They all shrugged and followed him down to the old office building. Wondering quietly, and in Fabian and Fig’s case; very loudly, what this announcement was about.

~

The office was cleaned and rearranged from the scuffle at the beginning of their adventure. The four who had been subjected to said scuffle walked in carefully. Fabian especially. He shuddered just thinking about nightmare-Riz.

Boggy croaked happily and Fabian felt a little better.

Real-life-Riz must’ve come here as soon as they got back. The space was impeccably clean and so clearly lived in at the same time. It looked like an IKEA display room for deranged detectives. The conspiracy board already had a new case starting to form on it and beside an old coffee cup on the desk lay the Nightmare King file, now with a big red CLOSED scribbled on top.

The Bad Kids tumbled in and filled the space in both spirit and person. At Riz’s indication they all got situated on the floor, each seemingly trying to out-weird the others in their sitting position. Well, Adaine sat prim and proper with boggy in her lap, silently confused over her friends antics. Riz stood, king of his castle, behind the desk. He filled them each a cup of black sludge that was almost coffee. Everyone but Kristen pulled a face when handed their cup.

“The Ball, will this put hair on my chest or make it fall out?” Fabian grimaced.

“Uhh, Both?” Riz waved him off. “But! That does bring me to my announcement…”

Everyone leaned forward in mild anticipation. Was it a new case? Whatever was happening on the conspiracy board? Was he and Sklonda moving? Was he an honorary detective? Was his father actually alive and in hiding and now needed their help on his most dangerous mission yet? (That last one was Figs suggestion.)

“I…” He took a deep breath.

“Wait is he like… coming out?” Kristen whispered to Adaine.

“Didn’t he already? And you think every announcement is someone coming out!” Adaine whispered back.

“Well, she’s right like 50% of the time you know?” Fig squeezed in and plopped a piece of popcorn in her mouth. at least it wasn’t a clove.

Riz paused.

“Did you bring snacks to my heartfelt moment of vulnerability?”

“Oh shit it’s gonna be heartfelt?” Fig exclaimed. “Dang, we are seriously unprepared.”

She quickly conjured a bowl of popcorn for the whole room. They descended on it like a pack of wolves.

After Adaine had broken up the coming fight and divvied the popcorn so that everyone got exactly as many as they wanted in comparison to the others (with any excess given to Boggy) Riz stood there with popcorn in his hand and a little less triumph in his voice.

“So what I was trying to say was…” He paused and looked around the room for any possible interjection. Fig looked like she still had something on her mind but a look shot her down. He coughed and tried to regain that triumphant feeling he’d been carrying all day.

This was his moment. Time to bring his character development to a head!

Boggy croaked happily. Yes, he could absolutely do this!

“I hereby relinquish my status as The Ball,” He said with grandeur, looking each of his friends in the eyes (or eye in Fabians case). “I formerly ask you all to stop calling me by that name.”

“Of course,” Gorgug and Kristen said in unison.

“That’s it?” Adaine said.

“Oh I never really liked The Ball either,” Fig said, chewing popcorn.

“WHAT?” Fabian was aghast. He had stood up and slammed his hands on the desk. “But. You. Are. The Ball.”

“Yeah well I never actually liked that nickname,” Riz said. He looked at the others behind Fabian. “I thought now, with all we’ve been through, I could tell you and still keep you as friends.”

“Of course you’re still our friend, you really thought something like that could get rid of us?” Adaine smiled softly like only she does. “It’s a stupid name anyway, the only one who actually cares is Fabian and maybe Ragh.”

“We should tell Ragh right?” Gorgug said, already on his chrystal. “I’m gonna tell Ragh.”

“Hey shh! I think we’re getting to the good part!” Fig elbowed him, pointing out Fabians red face. Then she shoved a fistful of popcorn into her mouth.

It seemed that Fig was conjuring more and more popcorn for every passing second.

Fabian was sputtering before he finally got the words out:

“But… but it’s our thing! We’re Fabian Aramais Seacaster, son of Bill Seacaster and captain of the bloodrush team, and The Ball!” he gestured wildly at himelf, then at Riz, then himself again. “What? Is the captain of the bloodrush team supposed to be best friends with some… just… not The Ball?”

The rest of the Bad Kids had quieted down, all impressed at Riz for actually hearing Fabian call him his best friend without crying. It was the fifteenth time by the way. Not that they kept count.

“Can’t our thing just be that we’re... Riz and Fabian?” Riz answered. Mostly weirded out by this harsh response.

“NO!”

“Why are you making such a big deal out of this?”

“Because… well…” Fabians mouth tried desperately to form any words to his own liking.

“What?”

And Fabian did something the others had barely ever seen before. He was quiet and thought out his next words.

For a while no one said a thing.

“Hey Fabian did Riz tell you he’s gay?” Kristen interjected into the silence.

“What?” (Fabian)

“WHAT!?” (Riz)

Riz threw daggers at her. Like a literal dagger. It struck the floorboards just short of her.

Boggy croaked happily and her heartrate lowered.

Adaine turned and elbowed her.

“What did we say about outing people for drama, Kristen?” she hissed.

“Even though it is fun it’s still very uncool,” she sighed. “But you know, this is a safe space. And like, I have a plan.”

Adaine rolled her eyes and held Boggy closer. Kristen was lovely but sometimes her impulsiveness really got the better of her. By the desk Fabian was staring at Riz, then back at Kristen, then back at Riz.

“You told Kristen but not me?” he looked actually, genuinely hurt. Which for Fabian still looked a tad like an overreaction.

He could see Riz look away. Everyone else turned awkwardly and drank their almost-coffee. The only one who seemed somewhat comfortable was Gorgug.

“Oh, uh… He told all of us actually,” Gorgug said, thinking he helped clarify the situation.

Four sets of eyes turned to glare at him with various levels of “stop talking.”

“Oh don’t you remember?” he pointed at Kristen. “You me and Adaine were talking about Asexuality, and then Fig came in and you” he pointed at Riz, whose ears were turning red under the green skin, “told us, just super casually, that you were gay and then told us to… to not… tell… uh… uh…… Traacker?” He realized his mistake too late.

Everyone looked at Fabian in horror.

“While I don’t really get why you wouldn’t want Tracker to know,” Thankfully Fabian was still thick when it counted. “I’m still hurt you didn’t tell me, I’m your Best Friend!”

“Well to be completely fair” Riz said. “I told Ragh before I told anyone here.”

Fabian looked almost as wounded as Kristen.

“He is actually very sensitive.”

Fabian looked around the room. A place of traitors. Even Ragh was a traitor and he wasn’t even here.  He didn’t feel so bad about not wanting to stop calling The Ball “The Ball” though. That was nothing important compared to this revelation.

“I’m sensitive, The Ball…” Fabian smiled. “I’m the most sensitive.”

“Ok…” Riz fixed him with a glare. “Then be sensitive to my feelings and call me Riz! It’s not that hard, you’ve done it before.”

“Well, not intentionally! And… just… you know what!” He turned dramatically. “Kristen, WHY did you decide to out my Best Friend in the middle of this, frankly inconsequential, conversation?”

Kristen almost choked on the coffee.

“Mm… You see it’s all part of my Master Plan!” She had a smug smile plastered on her face. “Our adventure is done, over, and through it, all of us have sort of grown and had revelations and just MAJOR character development. Just look at Riz! He realized he was gay and got comfortable enough to stop chasing our approval all the time…”

“I didn’t chase after your app-“

“You did.” Kristen said matter of factly. “Now he’s finally decided he’s not The Ball, he’s an adult! A man! and it’s not just him. I’m secure in Yes? now, Adaine is stepping into her role as the elven oracle and like everyone has had a sexuality and gender chat with me except you. And I want to have one really bad because I think there’s a lot that might be going on here.”

Fig paused her popcorn massacre to play the bassline for Fig and the Sig Figs newest hit “F*ck The Man And Also Being A Man Or A Woman”. It was massively popular.

“And with you…” Kristen hesitated. “Well basically you just got rejected by Aelwynn and after that got progressively sadder?”

“Wait, so your master plan is to get Fabian to talk about his feelings?” Adaine raised an eyebrow.

Kristen shrugged.

“OK!” Fabian decided to put a stop to this. “Why is THAT something we’re working through? Right. Now?”

“Because I am so sure it has something to do with the The Ball thing,” Kristen said, looking a little too excited.

“Ok, oookay,” Fabian said again. “There is no ‘ The Ball thing’.”

Which made everyone around murmur that Yes, there was clearly a “The Ball thing” and it was very weird. Fabian looked around for any ally in the room.

Boggy croaked happily.

“Why do you insist on calling me The Ball, Fabian?” Riz was done playing games. He stared down Fabian who almost shrunk under the force of it.

Fig shoved in another fistful of popcorn.

“Well maybe…” Fabian said, mentally unhinging his jaw to let it say whatever it was going to say. “Maybe it’s true that it’s our thing! And maybe I like that, and thought you liked it too. Maybe it represents our friendship? Maybe it feels like you’re taking away our whole dynamic, you know? Maybe… Maybe I can’t handle Riz?... Maybe Riz is just too close?”

Riz stood dumfounded. Everyone else shoved more popcorn in their mouths.

“Maybe I love you Riz!” He concluded, like he just figured it out himself. “Maybe I’m in love with you, maybe that’s it.”

There was a painful few seconds when Riz just stood quiet. Fabian stood still. A man who was unarmed and naked against a man with every knife sharper than his last.

Then Riz leaned in and kissed him. A quick peck on the lips while their audience erupted into giggles and celebratory shouts.

“Fabian,” Riz looked into his eyes and laughed. “I cry when you call me your best friend. Of course I’m in love with you! I’ve had a weird, sad crush on you since freshman year!”

“I can’t believe not one of the Bad Kids is cishet!” Kristen laughed. Then she shouted: “IS THIS WHAT TRUE BELONGING FEELS LIKE?”

Boggy croaked happily.

Adaine patted Riz on the back while Gorgug quietly started giving Fabian tips for their first date (which, of course, everyone else was going to hijack). Fig was already writing up lyrics for a song about them. Was “The Pirates Ball” a good title? She’d have to workshop it. Kristen felt like it was only right to commemorate this LGBT miracle by once again kissing every other Bad Kid on the mouth.

“Ok that’s it! Out! Everyone out!” Fabian started shoving the rest of them towards the door. Kristen first.

“Hey what gives this is great news!” Fig protested. “Also I’m gonna need the whole story of pining and realization and stuff to make this song really POP!”

“Nope, you’re going out!” He dragged her out by the bass.

“But whyyyy?” Fig groaned while holding on to the doorframe.

Fabian smiled like he hadn’t in weeks.

“I’m gonna get my kisses in.”

[dullgecko]

It had taken Riz three hours to get to Bastion City, burning through a decent chunk of the money he'd earned this month with his detective work on a taxi straight from Elmville. He'd then spent an hour casing the hotels he knew his mom usually stayed in before finding her car, then another ten minutes to break into the reception office, snoop through their check in files (not even encrypted, he'd have to ask her not to stay here again) and find her room number. He'd be a little proud of his own detective work if he wasn't so exhausted.

Riz knocked on the door of the hotel room and waited for someone to answer, leaning with his arm on the doorframe and looking every bit as tired as he felt. He could just unlock it himself but he didn't want to startle her, plus she had a blanket ban on him picking the lock to her bedroom door... and he was pretty sure this counted.

It took his mom a couple seconds to finally open the door, Sklonda having to make herself more presentable before she could. That being said her hair was still a mess and the bathrobe the hotel provided was just a little too large for her frame.

She was shocked to see Riz there when she finally did, the goblin woman making a valiant effort to smooth out her hair a bit more and block him from seeing inside. It didn't really work though, even if Riz couldn't see behind her he could still hear that there was someone else in the room.

"Riz honey, what the hell are you doing here it's the middle of the night?"

"I know. Sorry Mom I just.... you weren't answering your crystal." Riz had physically sagged in relief when he finally saw her, glancing past her head when he spotted Gortholax peek around the corner before ducking back behind the wall in his attempt to stay hidden out of sight.

"Oh. I didn't mean to...." He scrubbed a hand over his face, taking a deep breath as he made a valiant effort to stop that particular train of thought. "Well at least someone is here with you."

"Oh gods sweetie I'm sorry. I must have left it on silent after my meeting." Sklonda glanced behind her, face blushing a much darker green when it was clear she'd been caught. "No it's-"

"It's fine mom. I just needed to see you and make sure you were okay. I'll go home now." He pushed away from the doorframe, swaying a bit now that he didn't have anything to lean on. He only made it about two steps down the hallway before she grabbed him by the wrist and tried to pull him back towards the room.

"Riz you look exhausted. How did you even get here?.... You really shouldn't be walking around like this."

"Taxi, and i'll take another one back to Elmville its fine." Riz didn't resist when he was dragged though, but he only came far enough into the room so that she could close the door. Feeling FAR too awkward to walk into the room properly and past the small closet and bathroom in the entryway blocking his view of the bed.

"You took a taxi the entire way here? Gods thats... how much did that cost?"

"It's fine I had enough, the Roxili case i did last week paid decently." He could hear shuffling around out of his field of view before the fiend finally poked his head around to look at him.

"Don't worry about taking another one home, I can at least teleport you to the lawn of the manor." Gortholax offered, waving Riz over closer and making an amused noise when he noticed the goblin trying VERY hard not to notice anything in the room. Riz very pointedly counting any cracks he could pick out in the ceiling.

"Oh... yeah, that'll work. I can just walk home from there."

"No, stay the night at Mordred sweetie. I don't want you getting hit by a car or mugged because you're too tired to defend yourself... you have a key right?"

Riz turned his head to blink at his mom, cocking his head to the side in mild confusion. "Why would I need a key?"

"Oh... right. Locks are a mild suggestion at best for you." She ruffled his hair, Riz giving a tired purr and leaning into it. "I'll send Jawbone a text so he knows you're there.. and i'll take my crystal off silent."

"Thanks mom... and um... thanks Gortholax."

Riz was standing on the front lawn of the manor no more than a few seconds later. The rogue trudging tiredly up to the front door, letting himself in and making his way to the couch in the living room. It was Fig who found him the next morning when she nearly sat on him, Riz curled up into a tight ball int he corner of the couch and passed out asleep.

Riz has, on more than one occasion, scared the shit out of every single one of his friends individually by waking them up in the middle of the night by sneaking into their house, perching on their chest and waking them up to talk about some case he was working on that he couldn't stop thinking about. Look, they didn't answer their phones when he texted them he had no choice.

IN HIS DEFENCE he's usually not thinking about how goddamn terrifying it is to wake up in a dim room with a weight on your chest and all you can see is his eyes reflecting whatever light there is making them look like two floating orbs. What he's usually thinking is 'I need to tell my friend this thing RIGHT NOW IMMEDIATLY or I'll explode' because he's gone way past exhausted straight into manic because he's been up too long and lost count of how many coffee's he's had in the last four hours.

He's lucky he has uncanny dodge.