Setting Up Shop

[Crevasseus]

Crevasseus slips through the dimensional rift with a smile and a scoff. Take that you murderous jackasses he thinks triumphantly. He lands on a beach, face first.
Rolling over he laughs maniacally as he presses the button on the remote in his hand, flicks the switch adjacent to it and tosses the little remote through the rift. As the dimensional hole closes, the nuclear warheads he placed detonate. he imagines the beautiful colors of the explosion intertwine. The rift closes with a small whistle.
"Now that that's over," he says, "where in Hell am I?"
The island is small. In the dwindling twilight hour, the scenery is a scent and sound structure that Crevasseus bathes in the marvel and beauty of. Crevasseus loves the sea. He loves it more than anything.
He closes his eyesholes and slips into a light but much needed slumber.

[Tori Keheraht]

‾▿‾Immediately after Crevasseus dozed off, though, a different warp hole opened up . . . right next to him. Upward from it shot a gleefully squealing harpy, Tori Keheraht. She was about a hundred meters in the air before she started to descend, slowly free-falling to land on the tree that gave the man shade. She watched him and awaited his communication, unsure whether she should say anything at all and whether or not they spoke the same language.‾▿‾

[Crevasseus]

Crevasseus awakens and tilts his head up, sniffing the air.
"Holy mother of God!" he exclaims as he jumps to his feet and dives in the water out of surprise.

[Tori Keheraht]

Pfff-khh . . . Bwahahahahahahaha!

‾▿‾Tori's first reaction was to snicker, then burst out in full laughter. She did then consider what she had just heard and figured that it was probably pretty much just what it sounded like. She lept down and yelled out,‾▿‾

Hey! Sorry that I startled you! I'm not here to hurt you!

‾▿‾She hoped that the black liquid wouldn't drown out the sound . . . or, you know, corrode him because it's acidic to him or something.‾▿‾

[Crevasseus]

Standing out of the murky water and feeling more then slightly foolish, Crevasseus says, to who he recognizes to be the voice of a young lady, "How do you do Ma'am? I apologize for my overreaction. My name is Crevasseus, Technomage extraordinaire."

[Tori Keheraht]

Oh, that's all right! Pleased to meet you, sir. I'm Tori.

‾▿‾Clearly, there had not yet been enough excitement in this short stretch of time, because this was when Nadia, expressing her excitement in much the same manner as Tori had, entered through the warp hole atop Zurakuk, the habitat bird. That warp hole finally closed on its own after Zurakuk shot out of it. Half-expecting the gentleman to freak out again, Tori added,‾▿‾

-and, uh, this is my friend and one of my pets.

[Crevasseus]

Crevasseus bows slightly, "Nice to meet you. If you don't mind my asking, how did you get here?"

[Tori Keheraht]

Hi! I'm Nadia.

‾▿‾She wanted to start a song, but she wasn't sure whether or not magic was a socially acceptable thing, here.‾▿‾

Oh, no, we were just flying along at night in our home universe, then some giant, weird missile hit us, and the explosion was harmless, but it blew us clear into a warp hole that landed us here. What about you?

‾▿‾She had guessed that the man had merely swam or something, but she wanted to express as few assumptions as possible, being in a foreign land.‾▿‾

[Crevasseus]

Crevasseus scratches at his chin and looks in the general direction of the young woman, Why lie? he thinks "In short, I escaped pursuit through a dimensional rift I created with a machine I built 80 years ago. Destroying everything and everyone I ever knew... Crevasseus bows his head in shame. He takes off his sunglasses, revealing his stitched shut eyelids, while a tear escapes through the cracks. Wiping it away, he places his glasses back where they belong. Attempting to gather his composure, he shakes his head " ...But that is the past. The future is ahead and i intend to make mine worth living." He offers half a smile not expecting it to be returned, and not able to see it even if she did.

[Tori Keheraht]

‾▿‾Tori and Nadia both raised their left eyebrows. Nadia bore her teeth to express concern. Tori was more aloof, just maintaining that look of, Uh, seriously? Both of them knew that this guy could be bipolar or just nuts, or maybe this is intended as a pity plea to emotionally use them. On the other hand, the fact that he was also non-native meant that he probably didn't have an issue with xenophobia, so they could at least relax on one account.‾▿‾

Oh. If you don't mind me for asking, how far in the past was that, and exactly what do you intend to do from here? Was landing on this island intentional?

[Crevasseus]

"I'd guess about an hour. In truth I'm not sure. I may find some kind of academy for magic and apply to teach. I could open a shop for general technological repairs. I doubt i will go back to my old career. as far as right now I'd just like to find land. Possibly even shelter. I like the smell of the ocean and all, but no i don't particularly care for islands. What about the two of you?"

[NPA]

_Cutting Crevasseus' last sentence off mid-way, a mess of nineteen long, thin, oily-looking, yellow-and-lavender-colored tentacles flung themselves up from the shallow water in which the man stood. Four tried to wrap Crevasseus up, while six each reached for the ladies._

[Tori Keheraht]

‾▿‾Tori shot a Bad Bird at the nearest and cast Featherbomb on it, then transformed into her crow form. She flew to Nadia to pick her up in a talon, keep moving, toss her up, double back to catch the musician on her back, and cast Vortex on the nearest of the four tentacles that was attacking Crevasseus.‾▿‾

[Crevasseus]

Almost simultaneously to Tori's attack, Crevasseus lifts his hand, the longbow at his back raising. He pulls one hand back as it floats in front of him,. As he snags three arrows from his Quiver, they float to the bow with amazing speed. Crevasseus pulls his opposite hand back as if to punch and thrusts forward sending the arrows toward the tentacles nearest him that have targeted Tori and Nadia.

[NPA]

_Though Crevasseus was able to successfully perform his attack, his lack of movement left him vulnerable. The three unharmed tentacles around him wrapped him up, the one that was struck by the wind spell immediately following, and they pulled him underwater, where Crevasseus would see . . . nothing. He's blind. The four tentacles were strong enough to hold him under and drown him without help, so the other fifteen all lashed at the ladies. The arrows that had been headed for Tori and Nadia were partially successful: Two hit as aimed, while one tentacle evaded by happenstance of changing its direction. Bad Bird hit just fine, though the tentacle that was hit didn't even flinch by an amount that was noticeable to vision that was less than Tori's._