The Butcher Sword (Freakfest 2007)

Purgatory Tavern /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// tThe Purgatory Tavern, a popular hangout for Necromundus' longtime denizens and newcomers alike, mostly takes advantage of natural light - or the lack thereof. The sometimes wobbly tables and crooked-backed chairs are scattered throughout blue and violet shadows that are only vaguely disturbed by the illumination provided through porthole-like windows by the glowing archways in the nearby Portal Plaza.

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From a window comes him, just him, the low light coming from the hole in the wall creating a aura-like glow around him... Then him, the great him, jumps toward the middle of the tavern, revealing himself to be Goldenfur. "BEHOLD!!!" is a scream coming from his lungs at full power.

Whitefur enters the tavern just then, and his ears go flat at the bellowing. He reaches up to rub at one, somewhat miffed. "Rrrr."

At one of the tables sits a lone demon, apparently kept company by a bottle of whiskey, a bowl of popcorn, and...a basket of tomatoes? Oh dear. Phoenix scowls at the screaming felinoid, picking up one of the tomatoes and hucking it at Goldenfur, "Shaddap!"

"Who is there? Stop now!". Goldenfur now turn his back on the spectators and leave a phrase with a girly voice. "Sir, I just want a place to sleep...". Now Goldenfur again turn, facing the spectators and again shouts. "NO! NOONE MAY ENTER THE DEMON CASTLE!".

Whitefur finishes rubbing his ear, and curls up into a neat little ball in a corner, his expression not a happy cat expression at the bellowing.

Phoenix gestures to Whitefur, calling to the kitty, "Hey, I'll share." As if to emphasise what she's offering to share, another tomato is picked up and hurled at Goldenfur, the demon heckling, "Hey, I thought this was supposed to be a story - not a one-act play!"

Meldor appears at Phoenix's elbow and begins eating tomatoes out of her basket.

Goldenfur suddenly stops and eyes Phoenix, then he sits down on the table and says again with the funny girly voice. "But sir!". Then goldenfur say with his normal voice, without shouting. "And the guard sidesteps, the warn was given...".

Whitefur reaches up to pick at his fangs with a claw.

Phoenix nudges Meldor quietly, "Hey. That's what the popcorn's for." Another tomato is picked up and Ix quirks an eyebrow at Goldenfur in return. The demon leans back, watching the noisy felinoid for now.

Goldenfur after some time he proceeds telling the history. "Then the little girl, clad in white robes, walked inside the castle, a large room was the first thing that she saw, gargoyles decorating the great arches that were decorading the passages to other rooms..."

Meldor grins up at Ix. "But, my dear," he says in his British accent of -doom-. "I am a monkey. Fruit is better."

Whitefur continues to pick his teeth and then makes a loud sucking noise as he sucks the loosened food off of his fangs.

"I'm pretty sure I could get you some oranges or somethin'..." Ix replies. "I kinda meant t' use the tomatoes for throwin' at any storytellers who get really annoying."

Goldenfur proceeds with his storytelling. "The little girl noticed then a sparkling object, the shiny object beyond a huge door, the door below a equally huge arm, that had above it equally huge gargoyles... As the girl passed below the arc, she looked upward, and then proceeded walking."

Meldor just shrugs lightly. He waves his fingers in the air for a moment, as if typing, and suddenly a large basket of fruit appears in front of him. "...Ah well. Do not let me interrupt."

Whitefur tilts his head slightly as he listens, flicking one ear forward.

Goldenfur grins, then after some time he says "So, then it happened... The thing happened! The girl, the little defenseless girl, tripped on a stone and smacked the floor. The floor was cold, slimy, made of dark blue polished stone..."

Phoenix peers at Goldenfur, frowning quietly. Another tomato is pitched at the felinoid, Ix calling, "What's the point of this story?!"

Whitefur yawns and goes back to picking his teeth.

Meldor just blinks and leans in to faux-whisper to Phoenix, munching on an apple. "My dear old mother was scarier. Then again, she was a gorilla."

Goldenfur just... grin again, then he continues. "Then on the floor she saw it, the thing, a reflection or a shadow? The dark sillouette seemed to grin at her, what was going on?"

Phoenix faux-whispers to Meldor in return, "Dude, I've seen dust-bunnies with hangovers that're scarier than this." Almost absent-mindedly, she lobs another tomato at Goldenfur.

Whitefur stretches and twitches his ears again. "What /was/ going on?"

"Yes, please do tell us," Meldor calls out. "...Any time today."

Goldenfur look to himself, like examining how much tomato there are on his clothing and fur, then he says. "The little girl stood, and looked down, then looked up, what horrible thing, it was not a reflection, it was not a shadow..."

Considering that that was at least the fifth ripe tomato Ix threw at him? Let's go with 'a lot'. Phoenix rolls her eyes, ad libbing, "It was effin' terrifying, for lo, it had the power to bore senseless all those who heard it drone on and on." Possibly for emphasis, or possibly just because she's getting used to it, Ix tosses another tomato.

Whitefur twitches his ears again, and adjusts himself a little bit, curling up a little tighter.

"Was it you?" Meldor the codemonkey heckles through a mouthful of orange.

Goldenfur grins, then he check again his clothes and proceeds. "It was a refraction, she noticed that she was seeing trough the ground, the creature there, upside down, grinning at her, the shining object at the foot of the creature, the little girl then approaches it slowly."

Phoenix sits at a table, kept company by a bottle of whiskey, a bowl of popcorn, and a basket of tomatoes. Oh, and a codemonkey who's eating from a big bowl of fruit. Whitefur is curled up in a corner, watching Goldenfur, and Goldenfur is sitting on a different table, covered with the residue of ripe tomatoes and telling a story. "Could she put us out of our misery an' approach it a bit faster," Ix heckles, pitching another tomato.

Whitefur flattens his ears against his head at the tomatoes being thrown, and makes a little 'mrrt' noise.

Meldor just closes his eyes. "My word, I've heard better things in the communal toilet."

Goldenfur again check how much tomato there are over himself, then he says "The girl then grabbed the object, the shiny object, she could not imagine what the object was until she touched it, and after she touched it, she knew that it was not good, it really was not good..."

Bakonawa pushes his way into the tavern, grazing his flared fin on the top of the door as he does. The Dracoid raises his head up to the ceiling proudly, sniffing the room with large dark nostrils. He growls lightly, moving through the center of the tavern before flomping down roughly central, content for the moment to listen to Goldenfur.

"In fact, it was so bad, it made the whole story suck!" Ix continues heckling. And another tomato is pitched. By this point, one would assume that there's more tomato visible on Goldenfur than there is fur or clothing.

"By deduction, it must be good," Whitefur purrs.

Meldor chomps into his bucket of fruit.

Goldenfur is where he wanted... He just leaps toward Ix, pulling his dirty sword, hitting the tomato himself midair, making it splat everywhere, and he lands on her table covered in red while he shouts. "IT WAS THE BUTCHER SWORD!!!". Then he steps back on her table and smiles. "And the tale of the butcher demon ends here..."